Prince Harry just landed a huge victory in his landmark civil suit against the Mirror Group Newspapers, as the judge found the company illegally obtained information from the royal, awarding him about $180,000 in damages!!!
Judge Timothy Fancourt handed down his ruling Friday in a London courtroom, explaining that MGN-owned newspapers unlawfully gathered personal details about Harry’s life and published them for the world to read.
Fancourt determined that the tabloids hacked Harry’s phone and gained access to his voicemail messages to write their juicy stories.
In his 2019 suit, Harry claimed the intrusions went on for years, and also targeted his wife, Meghan Markle, causing them “considerable distress.”
Judge Fancourt found that 15 out of the 33 articles published by The Sunday Mirror and another paper contained information illegally gathered by hacking into Harry’s personal phone between 2004 and 2009. Harry’s attorney entered a total of 147 newspaper stories into evidence — and many of them were forensically analyzed.
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Prince Harry Unloads on British Press During Testimony in Privacy Case
Most of Harry’s allegations in the suit occurred from 1991 to 2011 at a time when he was running third to the British throne behind his father, King Charles, and his older brother, Prince William.
During the trial, Harry testified for seven hours, making him the first senior royal to take the witness stand in centuries in a court of law.
Harry and Meghan still have two more lawsuits pending against British tabloids for allegedly violating their privacy rights.