Barrister David Sherborne (centre) reads a statement on behalf of Harry Windsor outside the Rolls Buildings in central London, after he was awarded £140,600 after bringing a phone hacking claim against Mirror Group Newspapers
HARRY WINDSOR has been awarded £140,600 after a High Court judge ruled the Mirror Group (MGN) had engaged in “extensive” phone hacking from 2006-11.
Mr Justice Fancourt concluded the practice continued “to some extent” during the Leveson Inquiry into media standards and that the duke’s phone was probably hacked “to a modest extent” by the publisher.
The royal sued MGN for damages, claiming journalists at the Daily and Sunday Mirror and Sunday People were linked to methods including phone-hacking, so-called “blagging” or gaining information by deception. He also alleged the use of private investigators for unlawful activities.
The judge said his case was “proved in part only,” with 15 of the 33 articles about Mr Windsor examined at trial being the product of hacking of his or his associates’ phones “or the product of other unlawful information-gathering.”
His case was heard alongside similar claims brought by Coronation Street actor Michael Turner, actress Nikki Sanderson and Fiona Wightman, the ex-wife of comedian Paul Whitehouse.
