Prince Harry’s lawyers only needed to prove one instance of phone hacking or unlawful newsgathering to “win” his case against the Mirror. At the end of the day, the judge said that Harry proved 15 out of 33 articles of criminal hacking or illegal newsgathering. It’s a really big deal, but you wouldn’t know it from the coverage in the British media. Nor would you understand how massive the judgment was if you were just listening to Piers Morgan. Piers was editor of the Mirror for part of the time period in which all of this criminal sh-t was going down. There’s evidence (including Omid Scobie’s credible testimony) that Piers absolutely knew about the hacking and that he encouraged it. The judge said flatly that Piers knew about the hacking as well. All of which led to Piers giving a huffy press conference outside of his house on Friday:
From the Telegraph’s coverage:
Piers Morgan accused the Duke of Sussex of wanting to bring down the monarchy on Friday and said he “wouldn’t know the truth if it slapped him around his California-tanned face”.
The former editor of the Daily Mirror made the comments after Prince Harry called on the Metropolitan Police to investigate Mirror Group Newspapers following the ruling of a High Court judge that he had been a victim of phone hacking. On Friday, Mr Justice Fancourt said that the practice was “widespread and habitual” at the publisher’s three titles from 1998 and remained “extensive” from 2006 until 2011, “even to some extent during the Leveson Inquiry”.
In retaliation, Mr Morgan said the Duke had ”repeatedly trashed his family in public for hundreds of millions of dollars”.
He added: “Prince Harry’s outrage at media intrusion into the private lives of the Royal family is only matched by his own ruthless, greedy, and hypocritical enthusiasm for doing it himself. He demands accountability for the press but refuses to accept any for himself for smearing the Royal family, his own family, as a bunch of callous racists without producing a shred of proof to support those disgraceful claims. He also says he’s on a mission to reform the media, when it’s become clear his real mission, along with his wife, is to destroy the British monarchy.”
Scotland Yard has not ruled out a criminal inquiry. In a statement released on Friday night, it said: “We will carefully consider the civil judgment handed down today at the High Court. There is no ongoing investigation.”
[From The Telegraph]
Yeah… people are saying that Piers’ statement was not vetted by legal, and the streets are saying the Mirror might tie this around Piers’ neck and make him take the fall for everything. Piers will not go quietly into that good night though. His ad hominem attack on Harry is honestly a bonkers reaction to… Harry winning his case, and a new legal precedent being made so that more hacking victims can seek justice. Again, the judge found “compelling evidence” that Mirror’s editors knew about the hacking and were happy to benefit from it. That includes Piers.
— Rebecca Barry (@BeccaBarry) December 15, 2023
Former Mirror journalist Dan Evans says it is "fantastical" Piers Morgan had no knowledge of phone hacking.
Listen on @GlobalPlayerhttps://t.co/SdyBDl7qyY@lewis_goodall pic.twitter.com/cv4iuVqk6z
— The News Agents (@TheNewsAgents) December 16, 2023
— Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) December 15, 2023
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
Source: Read Full Article
