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Harry seeks accountability, not money, in legal battle

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NGN denies wrongdoing, vows to defend case fully

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Trial to address phone-hacking, unlawful information

gathering

By Michael Holden and Sam Tobin

LONDON, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Prince Harry's legal battle

against Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper group goes to trial

at the High Court in London on Tuesday with the royal seeking a

ruling that senior figures knew about and covered up widespread

wrongdoing.

Harry, along with former senior lawmaker Tom Watson, 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.

The prince says his mission is not money but to get to the

truth, after other claimants 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.

"One of the main reasons for seeing this through is

accountability, because I'm the last person that can actually

achieve that," Harry, who is set to appear as a witness himself

in February, said last month.

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 more than 1,300 lawsuits

involving celebrities, politicians, well-known sports figures

and ordinary people who were connected to them or major events.

Harry's legal team has said in earlier court documents that

his older brother Prince William, the heir to the throne, had

settled his own case against NGN in 2020 for "a very large sum

of money".

While Murdoch closed the News of the World in 2011, the

publisher has always rejected claims there was any unlawful

activity at the Sun and says it will fully defend the claims.

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

such as the extent of any phone-hacking and unlawful information

gathering at the papers.

Harry's team will argue that senior executives and editors

knew unlawful behaviour was widespread, and allege that they

misled police, provided false statements to a public inquiry

into media ethics held from 2011-12 and instigated a massive

cover-up with the deletion of millions of emails.

"This allegation is wrong, unsustainable, and is strongly

denied," a spokesperson for NGN said. "NGN will be calling a

number of witnesses including technologists, lawyers and senior

staff to defeat the claim."

As well as Harry, witnesses that are due to be called, or

who have provided evidence for the claimants include former

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, actors Hugh Grant and Sienna

Miller, singer Lily Allen and Heather Mills, the former wife of

Paul McCartney.