Prince Harry victim of phone hacking by Mirror Group Newspapers' Journalists: UK Court

Britain’s Prince Harry was a victim of phone-hacking and other unlawful information gathering by journalists at Mirror Group Newspaper (MGN), ruled London High Court and awarded him £140,600 ($179,600) in damages.

The court said the Duke of Sussex was the subject of “extensive” phone-hacking by MGN from 2006 to 2011.

Justice Timothy Fancourt said 15 stories published about Prince Harry by MGN used unlawful information gathering methods including phone hacking and the use of private investigators.

The judge said he had concluded that the newspapers carried out “extensive” phone hacking of celebrities between 2006 and 2011, even when a public inquiry into the conduct of the British press was ongoing.

“I consider that his phone was only hacked to a modest extent, and that this was probably carefully controlled by certain people at each newspaper,” Fancourt said.

A total of 33 articles were submitted for consideration, but the high court judge ruled fewer than half used unlawful information gathering.

Prince Harry and three other claimants sued the British newspaper group, which publishes The Daily Mirror, The Sunday Mirror and Sunday People, alleging its journalists hacked his phone and used other illicit means to gather information about his life over a roughly 15-year period from 1996.

Prince Harry became the first senior royal to appear as a witness in court for 130 years at the trial in June. He had sued MGN.

The last time a royal had given evidence in court was in the 1890s, when the future king Edward VII took the stand in a slander trial.

With inputs from agencies