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The Duke of Sussex has claimed a “monumental victory” after a “historic admission” that the Sun engaged in “illegal practices”, as he settled his marathon case against the newspaper’s publisher, News Group Newspapers (NGN), for reported damages of £10m.
NGN offered Harry a “full and unequivocal apology” for “serious intrusion” by the Sun and for phone hacking by private investigators working for the News of the World.
The settlement was announced as his five-year legal action over unlawful information-gathering by NGN was due to open at trial in London’s high court. Tom Watson, the former deputy Labour leader, also settled his claim against the publishers.
The two are now calling for a police and parliamentary investigation into “not only the unlawful activity now finally admitted, but the perjury and cover-ups along the way”, their legal counsel, David Sherborne, said in a statement outside court.
“Today the lies are laid bare. Today, the cover-ups are exposed. And today proves that no one stands above the law. The time for accountability has arrived,” Sherborne said.
Harry will receive undisclosed damages reportedly in excess of £10m.
He alleged he was targeted by journalists and private investigators working for the Sun as well as the now-defunct News of the World, and that executives destroyed evidence in 2011 to prevent the police investigating.
The case was “vindication for the hundreds of other claimants who were strongarmed into settling”, said Sherborne. After NGN spent “more than a billion pounds” in payouts and legal costs, “to prevent the full picture from coming out, News UK is finally held to account for its illegal actions and its blatant disregard for the law”.
He added: “The truth that has now been exposed is that NGN unlawfully engaged more than 100 private investigators over at least 16 years on more than 35,000 occasions. This happened as much at the Sun as it did at the News of the World, with the knowledge of all the editors and executives, going to the very top of the company.
“What’s even worse is that in the wake of the 2006 arrest of a royal correspondent, there was an extensive conspiracy to cover up what really had been going on and who knew about it. Senior executives deliberately obstructed justice by deleting over 30m emails, destroying back-up tapes, and making false denials – all in the face of an ongoing police investigation. They then repeatedly lied under oath to cover their tracks, both in court and at the Leveson public inquiry.
“At her trial, in 2014 Rebekah Brooks, said, ‘When I was editor of the Sun we ran a clean ship.’” Now, 10 years later when she is CEO of the company, they now admit, when she was editor of the Sun, they ran a criminal enterprise,” Sherborne added.
“Many of those behind these unlawful practices remain firmly entrenched in senior positions today, both within News UK and other media outlets across the world.”
A statement read to the court said: “NGN offers a full and unequivocal apology to the Duke of Sussex for the serious intrusion by the Sun between 1996 and 2011 into his private life, including incidents of unlawful activities carried out by private investigators working for the Sun.”
The publisher also apologised for “phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information” by journalists and private investigators instructed by them at the News of the World.
It acknowledged, “without any admission of illegality” that NGN’s response and subsequent actions over the 2006 arrests for phone hacking at the News of the World, “were regrettable”. It also apologised to Harry for the impact “of the extensive coverage and serious intrusion into his private life as well as the private life of Diana, Princess of Wales, his late mother, in particular during his younger years”, the court heard.
Lord Watson was also offered a “full and unequivocal” apology for the “unwarranted intrusion carried out into his private life during his time in government by the News of the World during the period 2009-2011”. This included being placed under surveillance in 2009 by News of the World journalists and people instructed by them.
Outside court, Watson spoke of the “direct harm caused by years of unlawful surveillance” by NGN’s “journalists and their army of private investigators”.
He praised Harry, saying: “I once said that the big beasts of the tabloid jungle have no predators. I was wrong. They have Prince Harry. His bravery and astonishing courage have brought accountability to a part of the media world that thought it was untouchable.”
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He added: “If Rupert Murdoch had any decency he should follow this corporate admission of guilt with a personal apology to Prince Harry, to his father, our king, and to countless others who suffered the same unlawful behaviour at the hands of his media empire.”
Emma Jones, of the press reform campaign group Hacked Off, said: “It is a humiliating day for the Sun and the senior executives at News Group Newspapers, who have finally admitted that allegations of illegality made against the publisher are true.”
She added: “It is now clear that the public and parliament were lied to by the newspaper and its publisher, as part of the most extraordinary corporate cover-up in living memory. The Sun’s claims of innocence formed part of the broader press campaign against independent regulation and Leveson part two. Now we have confirmation, from the publisher itself, that this was fabrication, the prime minister must get on with robust policy on press accountability without further delay.”
NGN said in a statement after the hearing: “Today, our apology to the Duke of Sussex includes an apology for incidents of unlawful activities carried out by private investigators working for the Sun, not by journalists, during the period 1996-2011.
“There are strong controls and processes in place at all our titles today to ensure this cannot happen now. There was no voicemail interception on the Sun.”
It added: “It must also be stressed that allegations that were being made publicly pre-trial, and indeed post-settlement, that News International destroyed evidence in 2010-11 would have been the subject of significant challenge at trial. These allegations were and continue to be strongly denied. Extensive evidence would have been called in trial to rebut these allegations from senior staff from technology and legal.
“After we served our skeleton arguments and evidence for trial including witness statements, the duke has not sought to pursue these allegations further despite his stated intent and no admission or apology has been made in relation to this. This is significant. This matter was also investigated fully by the police and CPS between 2012-2015, at the conclusion of which it was found that there was no case to answer.”
In December, Harry stressed that he sought “truth and accountability” through his legal action.
More than 1,000 people have come to agreements to end their legal action in recent years, including the actors Hugh Grant and Sienna Miller, the former footballer Paul Gascoigne, the comedian Catherine Tate and the Spice Girl Melanie Chisholm.
Harry’s legal team had said in earlier court documents that Prince William had settled his own case against NGN in 2020 for “a very large sum of money”.
In April last year, Grant settled his legal claim after being advised he risked being liable for £10m in legal costs if his case proceeded to a trial.
The judge, Mr Justice Fancourt, had previously described Harry’s court battle against NGN as resembling a campaign between “two obdurate but well-resourced armies” that was taking up “more than an appropriate” amount of court time.
A Metropolitan police spokesperson said: “We await any correspondence from the parties involved, which we will respond to in due course.”
