Prince Harry’s Illegal Information Gathering Case Against The Sun to Go to Trial

Prince Harry's Illegal Information Gathering Case Against The Sun to Go to Trial

Prince Harry‘s case against The Sun is going to trial.

According to a report from People published on Thursday (July 27), a High Court judge ruled that the 38-year-old Duke of Sussex has won the right to take News Group Newspapers – publisher of The Sun – to court over claims it used illegal means to gather information about him.

The trial is set to begin in January 2024.

Keep reading to find out more about Harry’s case…

“The process of selecting the cases that will be tried on this occasion will take place in the autumn,” the ruling read. NGN has continuously denied Harry‘s allegations.

Harry has claimed that he was targeted by private investigators and journalists working for NGN from the mid-1990s to 2016. The ruling suggests that the methods used to obtain information about him included “blagging of confidential information from third parties, and instructing private investigators to do these or other unlawful acts”.

While the case regarding the publisher’s alleged use of illegal methods to gather information will go to trial, the judge dismissed another claim of Harry‘s related to phone hacking.

Judge Timothy Fancourt ruled that Harry had known about phone hacking at News of World – a now-defunct paper published by NGN – by 2012 and could have brought his case sooner.

“I am satisfied that there is no reasonable prospect of the duke proving at trial that he did not know and could not with reasonable diligence have discovered facts that would show that he had a worthwhile claim for voicemail interception in relation to each of the News of the World and The Sun,” he wrote in his judgement.

He continued, “He already knew that in relation to the News Of The World, and he could easily have found out by making basic inquiries that he was likely to have a similar claim in relation to articles published by The Sun.”

People writes that in March, Harry alleged that there was a deal in place between royal aides and NGN that stated he should delay any legal action against the company, at which point privacy breaches would be admitted or settled with an apology.

But on Thursday, Judge Fancourt stated that Harry hadn’t “provided any evidence from those in the palace who would have been aware of a secret agreement if there was one.”

See all the bombshells from Harry‘s testimony against Mirror Group Newspapers here.