Daily Mirror publisher faces 101 phone-hacking lawsuits in UK
20/11/2024 15:51
By Sam Tobin
LONDON, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN)
is facing 101 phone-hacking lawsuits from public figures
including actors Kate Winslet, Sean Bean and Gillian Anderson
and the estate of late Australian cricketer Shane Warne,
London's High Court heard on Wednesday.
The publisher of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday
People tabloids – which is owned by Reach RCH.L – has been
entangled in litigation for more than a decade over alleged
phone hacking and other unlawful information gathering.
MGN had accepted that some unlawful information gathering
took place at its newspapers in the early 2000s, before Prince
Harry and three others went to trial last year.
Harry, the younger son of King Charles, was awarded 140,600
pounds (around $178,000) after London's High Court ruled the
prince had been targeted by MGN journalists – the biggest win
yet in his "mission" to purge the British press.
He accepted substantial damages from MGN to settle the
remainder of his lawsuit, but vowed his mission would continue
and a trial of his separate case against Rupert Murdoch's
British newspaper arm is due to begin in January.
When Harry largely won his case in December 2023, Reach also
claimed victory as two other claimants' cases were rejected as
having been brought too late.
The company said the ruling meant cases brought after
October 2020 were "likely to be dismissed other than where
exceptional circumstances apply".
MGN is, however, currently facing a total of 101 lawsuits
brought by a number of people, including Prince Harry's
ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy, the claimants' lawyers said at a
hearing on Wednesday.
The publisher asked for a trial to be heard in late 2025 to
decide whether a sample of the 101 cases were brought too late,
arguing it would likely prompt a settlement of the cases.
Judge Timothy Fancourt ruled that such a trial would
accelerate other cases being resolved and said it was likely to
take place in November 2025.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin, Editing by William Maclean)
((Sam.Tobin@thomsonreuters.com;))