The Duke of Sussex has called for a fresh police investigation into phone hacking by the tabloid press after he won substantial damages in the High Court from the publisher of the Daily Mirror for illegal-information gathering against him.
Scotland Yard said it would consider the MGN ruling but underlined it has no live inquiries into phone hacking or blagging.
A spokesperson said: “We will carefully consider the civil judgment handed down today at the High Court. There is no ongoing investigation.”
Prince Harry hailed a “great day for truth” after a judge ruled that 15 articles written about him by Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) were part of a campaign of unlawful voicemail interception or “blagging” – the gaining of personal information by deception – by journalists and private investigators.
In a withering 386-page judgment – following a seven-week trial in which the Duke this summer became the first senior royal to give evidence in a court for 130 years – Mr Justice Fancourt awarded Harry £140,000 in damages after finding MGN had indulged in “extensive” phone hacking between 2006 and 2011.
The judge found there “can be no doubt” that senior editors and lawyers at the media group, including former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan, had known about the phone hacking – adding that the practice had continued “to some extent” even during the landmark Leveson Inquiry into press standards in 2011.
The ruling singled out two senior MGN executives, including former chief executive Sly Bailey, for having “turned a blind eye” to the illegal activity and allegedly allowing it to continue for several years.
Mr Morgan strongly denied any wrongdoing, insisting he had never hacked a phone or instructed anyone to do so. In so doing, the broadcaster renewed his feud with Harry by saying the Prince “wouldn’t know the truth if it slapped him in his California-tanned face”.
The Duke nonetheless claimed vindication for his decision to confront MGN – one of three major UK newspaper publishers against whom he is currently embroiled in litigation linked to alleged breaches of privacy or illegal information gathering.
In a statement read outside the High Court by his lawyers, Harry called for further action by organisations including the Metropolitan Police to “do their duty for the British publish and to investigate bringing charges against the company and those who have broken the law”.
Scotland Yard had previously undertaken a series of criminal investigations into illegal information-gathering spanning more than decade.
In two days of at times emotional testimony in June, Harry, 39, told the High Court that articles published in the Daily Mirror and its sister titles, the Sunday Mirror and The Sunday People, had “affected every area” of his life and left him paranoid to the extent that he had ended friendships with people close to him who he wrongly suspected of leaking information.
Lawyers for the Prince had submitted 140 articles which he claimed were the result of unlawful behaviour by MGN journalists and investigators over 15 years from 1996.
Mr Justice Fancourt found that of 33 sample articles examined for the case, 15 were linked to phone hacking or illegal information-gathering between 2003 and 2009 – among them eight pieces related to Harry’s relationship with his former girlfriend Chelsy Davy.
The judge said the evidence showed the Duke’s phone had been hacked “to a modest extent” and that his claim for hacking and blagging had been “proved in part only”.
The King’s youngest son was one of three claimants whose allegations of phone hacking against MGN were chosen as test cases as part of a wider set of litigation, including 100 individuals such as sport stars, celebrities, actors and others simply associated to high-profile figures.
It is likely these cases will now proceed against MGN, which apologised “unreservedly” for what it described as “historical wrongdoing”. The publisher’s parent company, Reach, said the clarity provided by the judgment meant £45m which it has set aside would be enough to meet the cost of further settlements.
One lawyer last night suggested that the ruling could also open the floodgates for fresh claims against newspaper publishers for past stories. Philippa Dempster, a privacy expert, said: “Hundreds of people who had articles written about them in the 90s and noughties containing private information from questionable sources will now be emboldened to bring claims.”
Prince Harry vowed to continue his legal campaign. He said: “I’ve been told that slaying dragons will get you burned. But in light of today’s victory and the importance of doing what is needed for a free and honest press it’s a worthwhile price to pay. The mission continues.”