Queen drops court action against paper

By ROBERT VERKAIK in London

The Queen has settled her legal battle with the Daily Mirror over the publication of damaging revelations about life inside Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.

Lawyers for the Queen said a claim for damages against the Mirror had been dropped in return for the paper agreeing to hand over all unpublished photographs and documents obtained by Ryan Parry, the journalist who had been employed as a palace footman.

The paper also agreed to pay £25,000 ($66,000) towards the Queen's legal costs, as well as undertaking not to republish photographs, which first appeared on November 19, of the rooms of the Duke of York and the Earl and Countess of Wessex.

Yesterday the Mirror editor, Piers Morgan, said he was delighted that the Queen had decided to drop the legal action and suggested that the royal family owed Parry a vote of thanks for uncovering security lapses at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.

In its extensive coverage of the story last week the Mirror published photographs of the royal family's living quarters, including the bedrooms of Prince Andrew and Prince Edward as well as the Queen's breakfast table.

Morgan said after the settlement: "This was an important investigation ... which will lead to a complete overhaul of security around the royal family."

In the High Court yesterday Jonathan Sumption, QC, for the Queen, told Justice Sir Gavin Lightman that the royal family were entitled to "a proper measure of privacy in their personal lives".

He added: "They are also entitled to trust those who serve in their households, without having to make the corrosive assumption that their confidence may be betrayed at any moment with impunity."

He said that the general thrust of articles published in the Mirror was that vetting processes for those who worked at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle were insufficient.

It was accepted that there was a public interest in disclosing such matters to the proper authorities and the Security Commission had been asking to review the vet-ting procedures.

However, " ... the proper authorities do not include the Daily Mirror, and a large proportion of what Mr Parry wrote had nothing to do with lapses of security".

But Morgan said: "It was necessary to deploy subterfuge to establish how easy it would have been for a terrorist to become a royal footman.

"We have no wish to cause any further embarrassment to Her Majesty, or have an ongoing legal battle with the Palace.

"The fact that the Palace has dropped its claim for damages against us for alleged breach of confidence indicates that the Queen implicitly recognises there was legitimate public interest in our disclosures - however uncomfortable they may have been to read."

Legal battle over photos

* The Queen won a temporary injunction against the Daily Mirror on Friday.

* Her lawyers had argued that reporter Ryan Parry, who was employed as a footman for two months, had breached the terms of his employment contract by revealing confidential information.

* The newspaper published photographs of the royal family's living quarters as well as the Queen's breakfast table.

- INDEPENDENT