British prince and former MP Tom Watson is suing News Group Newspapers for alleged illegal activities.
The start of Prince Harry’s legal battle against Rupert Murdoch’s British media group has been delayed at London’s High Court, amid chaos caused by last-minute settlement talks between the two parties.
Harry and former MP 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.
While it was supposed to be the start of an eight-week trial, Harry and Watson’s lawyer, David Sherborne, on Tuesday asked the judge, Timothy Fancourt, for more time to continue discussions.
Fancourt granted the request but said this was to be the “final adjournment” and that proceedings would begin if no agreement was reached.
Sherborne then asked for additional time to negotiate, supported by NGN’s lawyer Anthony Hudson, who cited “time difference difficulties” in a possible reference to Harry, who lives in California.
Fancourt said he did not believe the court records contained anything that could impact settlement attempts, to which Hudson said “there are other issues that will arise when the trial will begin and which will have a very significant impact on the dynamics of the settlement. .
The judge declined to give the parties more time and said some of the lawyers for both sides could continue to discuss a possible deal as the trial begins.
Asked by Hudson to hold a brief discussion in private, Fancourt responded: “I’m not going to start holding secret hearings about what’s going on. »
The judge also refused permission to appeal. He then left the court to let the parties appeal directly to the Court of Appeal, which he acknowledged meant they would probably succeed anyway.
Hundreds of colonies
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 people which were linked 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 the 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.
