Prince Harry phone hacking trial: Harry receives apology from The Mirror publisher

The first of the Duke of Sussex's three phone hacking lawsuits goes to trial this week. Photo / AP

The publisher of The Mirror UK has apologised to Prince Harry for illegal information gathering as the case goes to trial.

The trial for the Duke of Sussex’s lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, Daily Express and other outlets has officially begun this week, reports People. Harry is one of four celebrities representing a larger group of well-known figures suing the publisher for unlawful information gathering.

The apology states that the publisher “unreservedly apologises” for one example of illegal conduct that “warrants compensation”, according to Sky News. The outlet reports that a Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) journalist used a private investigator to collect information about Harry’s behaviour at a nightclub in London in 2004.

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice on March 28, 2023 in London. Photo / Getty Images

However, the article that resulted from that information is not included in Harry’s claims in the current case, reports the BBC.

The apology reads in full, “MGN unreservedly apologises for all such instances of UIG, and assures the claimants that such conduct will never be repeated.”

The publisher denies allegations of voicemail hacking and argues that the legal time limit has expired for many of the cases. Prince Harry’s lawsuit includes 148 articles published between 1996 and 2010.

Harry’s lawyer David Sherborne was in court in the UK on Wednesday local time, though the Duke of Sussex himself did not appear as he had already left the country to return home following his father King Charles’ coronation on the weekend.

Sherborne told the court that Harry had “experienced unusual telephone and media-related activity which is consistent, now in hindsight but at the time unsuspected, with the unauthorised accessing of his voicemails and other unlawful information gathering.”

He added that Harry received missed and dropped phone calls “on an almost daily basis from numbers he did not recognise”.

“This unlawful activity, including in particular knowing where the Duke of Sussex was going to be at a given time and the widespread dissemination amongst MGN’s journalists of private information relating to him, posed a very real and large-scale security risk for the Duke of Sussex, his family and his associates,” Sherborne argued.

Harry is expected to make a court appearance in June, with the trial expected to last between six and seven weeks. He will be the first member of the royal family to witness in court when he gives evidence.

The Duke of Sussex is involved in ongoing litigation against two other publishers over similar claims.

In March this year, he appeared in London’s High Court to attend hearings to determine whether his suit against Associated Newspapers, which publishes the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday, will go to trial. A decision has not yet been revealed.

Last last month, a preliminary hearing was held at the High Court of Justice in London to determine whether Harry’s case against the publisher of The Sun and the formerly published News of the World will go to trial.

Harry claims the publisher had a “secret agreement” with the rest of the royals meaning he could not bring allegations against them earlier, and that his brother Prince William quietly settled with them for a “very large sum of money”.