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Lawsuit to start on Tuesday, after others settled

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Harry will appear in court next month

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Murdoch's newspaper group denies unlawful activity at Sun

By Michael Holden and Sam Tobin

LONDON, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Prince Harry's lawsuit

against Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper group officially

begins at the High Court in London on Tuesday, with King

Charles' younger son set to appear as a witness himself at the

trial next month.

Harry is suing News Group Newspapers over alleged unlawful

activities carried out by journalists and private investigators

working for its papers, the Sun and the defunct News of the

World, from 1996 until 2011.

Harry has said he wants to get to the truth, after about 40

other claimants, including actor Hugh Grant, settled cases to

avoid the risk of a multi-million pound legal bill that could be

imposed even if they won in court but had rejected NGN's offer.

"They have settled because they've had to settle," he told

the New York Times Dealbook Summit last month. "One of the main

reasons for seeing this through is accountability because I'm

the last person that can actually achieve that."

The NGN case is the latest lawsuit in Harry's war with the

British press which began shortly after his marriage to his

American wife Meghan in 2018.

Harry and Meghan stepped down from royal duties in March

2020 and moved to California, where they now live with their two

children, a decision the prince says was largely due to

intrusion, harassment and incitement to hatred from the

tabloids.

Critics say he is seeking vengeance on papers for their

coverage about him and his barbed comments against other members

of the royal family after he used documentaries, his memoir and

interviews to criticise editors and senior executives.

The eight-week trial will at first consider "generic issues"

such as phone hacking and unlawful information gathering at the

papers, whether senior NGN figures knew about it, and whether

incriminating evidence had been deliberately destroyed.

It will also examine allegations NGN misled police and

provided false statements to a public inquiry into media ethics

held from 2011-12.

Specific evidence relating to Harry and another claimant,

Tom Watson, a former Labour Party deputy leader, will then be

scrutinised, with the prince himself expected to give evidence

for at least two days, while former prime minister Gordon Brown

is also expected to appear as a witness.

"His claim will be fully defended, including on the grounds

that it is brought out of time," a spokesperson for NGN said of

Harry's lawsuit.

The spokesperson said Watson had never been a target of

hacking, and the allegation that emails had been unlawfully

destroyed was "wrong, unsustainable, and is strongly denied".

PHONE HACKING

The fifth-in-line to the throne has already successfully

sued Mirror Group Newspapers for hacking voicemail messages on

his phone and for other unlawful invasions of privacy, winning

substantial damages.

That case saw him become the first senior British royal for

130 years to appear as a witness in court when he provided

testimony over two days in June 2023.

There is potentially more at stake for Murdoch's newspaper

group. In 2011 it issued an unreserved apology for widespread

phone hacking carried out by journalists at the News of the

World which Murdoch shut down.

Since then NGN has paid out hundreds of millions of pounds

to victims of phone hacking and other unlawful information

gathering by the News of the World, and settled claims brought

by more than 1,300 people.

But it has always denied any unlawful activity at the Sun,

and the upcoming trial will be the first to examine specific

allegations against the paper which was previously edited by

Rebekah Brooks, now head of News Corp's ( NWSA ) British arm.

She was found not guilty in 2014 of phone hacking following

a criminal trial, and NGN's lawyers have accused Harry's legal

team and others of trying to turn the lawsuit into a re-run of

old cases and the public inquiry.

The judge previously ruled that Harry could not bring

allegations against Murdoch himself. Brooks will not be giving

evidence but other current and former NGN staff will be

appearing.