LONDON – The publisher of a British newspaper has agreed to pay Bryce Harry a “substantial” sum in costs and damages for violating his privacy through phone hacking and other illegal intrusions, Harry's lawyer said Friday.
Lawyer David Sherborne said the Mirror Group newspapers had agreed to pay Harry's legal costs and damages and would make an interim payment of 400,000 pounds ($505,000).
Harry was awarded £140,000 ($177,000) in compensation in December after a judge found that… Phone hacking It was “widespread and common” at Mirror Group newspapers in the 1990s, and newspaper executives covered it up. Judge Timothy Fancourt found that Harry's phone had been compromised to a “modest extent.”
The Mirror Group said in a statement that it was “pleased to have reached this agreement, which gives our business greater clarity moving forward from the events that occurred many years ago for which we have apologized.”
The case that Harry filed against the Mirror Group, which publishes the Daily Mirror and two other tabloids, is one of several cases he launched in a campaign against the British media, which he accuses of ruining his life and persecuting his late mother, Princess Diana, and his wife. Megan.
In June, he became the first senior member of the royal family To testify in court In more than a century while trying his case against the mirror.
Harry, also known as the Duke of Sussex, was not in court for Friday's ruling. He traveled to London from his home in California earlier this week to visit his father, King Charles III, who was diagnosed with cancer. Harry returned to the United States about 24 hours later.
Harry still has ongoing cases against the publishers of The Sun and Daily Mail over allegations of illegal hacking. He recently dropped a libel case against the publisher of The Mail after an inadequate pre-trial ruling.
At a High Court hearing on Friday, the judge ordered the Mirror Group to pay some of the legal costs of three other claimants whose cases were being heard alongside Harry's.
Fancourt said that “all plaintiffs were vindicated” by the court's findings of misconduct by the Mirror Group, and that legal costs had increased due to the publisher's “attempts to conceal the truth.”
The publisher was ordered to pay “overhead costs” for a public case aimed at exposing wrongdoing committed by the company. This is separate from the legal costs of preparing and submitting individuals' specific claims.
The judge said the other three claimants must pay some of Mirror Group's costs in their individual cases. The judge found last December that the privacy of all four plaintiffs had been violated, but dismissed the cases brought by actress Nikki Sanderson and Fiona Whiteman, the ex-wife of comedian Paul Whitehouse, because they were brought too late. Actor Michael Turner's claim was partially successful.
. “Professional creator. Lifelong thinker. Reader. Beer buff. Troublemaker. Evil problem solver.”