Harry demands $400,000 in the phone hacking case
Court documents published on Friday revealed that Prince Harry is seeking damages of up to 320,000 pounds ($405,000) from Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) as a trial over the hacking of the prince’s phone draws to a close.
The prince and about 100 others are suing the foundation that publishes the Daily Traffic, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People newspapers at the High Court in London over what they say is Hacking phones and collecting information illegally Between 1991 and 2011.
Prosecutors say the organization’s senior editors and executives knew of and approved the wrongdoing. For its part, MGN says that there is no evidence to prove these accusations.
Prince Harry says the foundation has targeted him for 15 years, since 1996. More than 140 stories have been published in the Foundation’s newspapers The result was illegal gathering of information, and yet the trial, which ends on Friday, considers only 33 stories.
According to court documents published on Friday, the prince is claiming damages of up to 320,000 pounds sterling in connection with 33 articles if the court rules in favor of Prince Harry in relation to all of these stories.
The court may also consider whether Prince Harry is entitled to what is known as “compensation for substantial damages”, which the court can award to the plaintiff for the additional harm caused to him by the accused.
(expressive)
MGN says the articles involved in the lawsuit were not published based on illegal information gathering, that there is no evidence that Prince Harry’s phone was hacked, and that some of the personal information published about him came from or with the consent of senior aides and advisers at Buckingham Palace.
Court documents said the publisher said Harry would only be entitled to £37,000, even if the court ruled in his favor on all articles.
The foundation acknowledged at the start of the trial in May that it once hired a private investigator to illegally collect information on Prince Harry in 2004, although that published article is not included in the trial.
The foundation said Prince Harry should be awarded compensation of up to £500 for the single incident.
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, became the first high-ranking member of the British royal family to testify in court in more than 130 years, when he appeared this month in a day-and-a-half of cross-examination on the witness stand.
Prince Harry, who is fifth in line to the British throne, said he believed the phone hacks had been widely reported in the institution’s newspapers.
The trial is due to end on Friday, but a verdict is not expected for several months.
