By Michael Holden and Sam Tobin
LONDON (Reuters) – The start of Prince Harry’s legal battle against Rupert Murdoch’s British media group was briefly delayed on Tuesday at the High Court in London.
Harry and former lawmaker Tom Watson are suing News Group Newspapers over alleged illegal activities carried out by journalists and private investigators working for his newspapers, the Sun and the now-defunct News of the World, from 1996 to 2011.
As an eight-week trial was set to begin, Harry and Watson’s lawyer, David Sherborne, asked the judge, Timothy Fancourt, for more time.
“I am sure your lordship can understand why this might be necessary,” Sherborne said without elaborating.
The prince said his mission was not money but the truth, after other claimants settled their cases to avoid the risk of a multi-million pound legal bill which could be imposed even if they won in court but rejected NGN’s offer.
“One of the main reasons for doing this is accountability, because I am the last person who can do this,” Harry, who himself is due to appear as a witness in February, said last month.
NGN has paid hundreds of millions of pounds to victims of phone hacking and other illegal information collected by the News of the World, and has settled more than 1,300 lawsuits involving celebrities, politicians, well-known sports figures and ordinary people related to them or major events.
Harry’s legal team said in previous court documents that his older brother, Prince William, heir to the throne, settled his own lawsuit against NGN in 2020 for “a very large sum of money.”
Although Murdoch closed News of the World in 2011, the publisher has always rejected allegations that there was illegal activity at the Sun and said it would fully defend the allegations.
The trial, which will last eight weeks, will initially examine “generic issues”, such as the extent of phone hacking and the illegal collection of information in newspapers.
Harry’s team will argue that senior executives and editors knew the illegal behavior was widespread, and allege they misled police, provided false statements during a public inquiry into media ethics held from 2011 to 2012 and incited a massive cover-up with the deletion of millions of emails.
“This allegation is false, untenable and strongly denied,” an NGN spokesperson said. “NGN will call a number of witnesses, including technologists, lawyers and senior executives, to reject this claim.”