Prince Henry, youngest son of King Charles III of the United Kingdom, was the victim of hacking of his mobile phone by tabloids from the Mirror group, for which he must receive compensation of 140,600 pounds (about 163,096 euros), a court ordered this Friday. judge of the High Court of London. Magistrate Timothy Fancourt indicated that the personal telephone number of the Duke of Sussex It was hacked between 2003 and 2009 and that 15 of a total of 33 articles about his life were written based on information obtained through wiretaps.

The Duke of Sussex, son of Charles III and the late Diana of Wales, had initiated legal proceedings against the Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), accusing it of having engaged in dubious practices such as illegally intercepting telephones in order to obtain information. and sell newspapers. The articles “were the result of the phone tapor the product of other illegal information gathering,” said the judge, who acknowledged that the compensation figure is modest, but reflects the harm experienced by the prince from the Mirror’s actions.

“I noted that 15 of the 33 items judged were the product of hacking of his mobile phone or the mobile phones of his associates, or the product of other illegal collection of information. I believe that his phone was hacked only in a modest way and that it was probably was carefully controlled by certain people at each newspaper,” he added. “However, it happened occasionally from late 2003 to April 2009 (the date of the last article I examined). In his testimony, the duke tended to assume that everything published It was a product of the voicemail interception because phone hacking was widespread in Mirror Group at the time,” the judge noted.

Following the ruling, an MGN spokesperson said they “welcome today’s ruling, which gives the company the clarity needed to move forward on events that took place many years ago. Where historical irregularities occurred, we apologize unreservedly.” , We take full responsibility and pay appropriate compensation“. Last June, the prince, who resides in the United States, had appeared as a witness before the court, to whom he stated that the actions of the tabloids to obtain exclusives generated “paranoia” and “mistrust” and had an impact on “all the plots” of your life, from security to relationships.

The MGN group publishes the newspapers “Sunday Mirror”, “Daily Mirror” and Sunday People”, and the lawsuit covered the period between 1995 and 2011, when numerous details of his life were published, allegedly obtained through illegal means. The prince’s appearance in court sparked widespread media attention as he was the first member of the British royal family in more than a hundred years to give evidence in person before a British court. The prince even accused the tabloids of having “incited hatred and harassment” in his private life in a written document. Lawyers for the Mirror group, for their part, described the allegations as “exaggerated” and that the evidence presented had failed to demonstrate a single example of having been hacked.

After hearing the news, Prince Henry described his legal victory as a “great day for the truth.” “Today is a great day for truth and accountability“said the Duke of Sussex in a statement read to the media by his lawyer, David Sherbourne, before the court. The legal measure was based on the need to have “a free and honest press”, and that it is “duly responsible when necessary,” added the statement from the duke, 39. The ruling, he added, shows that the directors and legal departments of the Mirror tabloids were well aware of the illegal collection of information. “The path to Justice “It can be slow and painful,” the prince’s note underlines, highlighting that “defamatory stories and intimidating tactics were deployed against me.”