This week, the Duke of Sussex will testify in court in connection with his ongoing phone-hacking conflict with some members of the British press.
Prince Harry is suing Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) for damages after it was revealed that staff writers at some of the company’s publications had engaged in phone hacking and other unlawful techniques for obtaining personal information.
He has charged the Sunday Mirror and Sunday People, two publications published by MGN, with “blagging,” or getting information through trickery, as well as using private detectives for illegal purposes.
When he attends the first of five ongoing legal proceedings against UK tabloids, the Duke of Sussex will be the first British royal to testify in court in more than a century. The last time it happened was in 1891, when King Edward VII, who was not yet king, gave a slander trial deposition.
In court documents, Harry said that while his family has shied away from discussing potentially unpleasant topics, he is determined to confront tabloids who are supposed to have launched “vicious, persistent attacks” against him and his wife, Meghan Markle.
The Mirror Group and 33 of the 150 articles it published between 1995 and 2011 regarding King Charles‘ youngest son are the targets of the first trial, which will begin on Monday. The Mirror has actually acknowledged in court documents that Harry and company have a point regarding some unethical strategies they’ve used in the past, but they haven’t admitted to using them in these particular stories he’s mentioning.
The court heard testimony from Harry’s attorney, David Sherborne, who said that the alleged illegal behavior by the reporters and editors at the Mirror Group was ‘widespread and habitual’ and was done on ‘an industrial scale.’ Sherborne specifically named former Daily Mirror editor and pundit Piers Morgan as one of the individuals who allegedly gave the go-ahead for the publication of the illicit data.
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The Coronation Street soap opera stars Nikki Sanderson and Michael Turner, as well as comedian Paul Whitehouse’s ex-wife Fiona Wightman, are all involved in Harry’s action against the Mirror Group.
