Prince Harry’s recent run of bad luck is continuing, after it was ruled Thursday that his phone-hacking claims against a UK publisher have been thrown out by a High Court judge.
The judge also dismissed Harry’s conspiratorial claim that there was a “secret agreement” between Buckingham Palace and the British press, calling the arrangement Harry described “implausible.” In his ruling, the judge said that the prince’s case had “not reached the necessary threshold of plausibility and cogency.”
Harry’s lawsuit accusing the publisher of the Sun tabloid of unlawfully snooping on him, can go to trial. Harry alleged the publisher of the Sun and the News of the World had hacked his phone and used investigators and deception to unlawfully gather information on him dating back two decades.
News Group Newspapers (NGN), which is owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, argued that the suit should be thrown out because Harry’s claims were brought after the six-year limitation period had expired. Harry’s legal team have also alleged that his elder brother Prince William had settled a phone hacking claim against NGN for a “huge sum.”
Justice Timothy Fancourt said that Prince Harry was well enough aware of the phone hacking scandal in 2011 to bring those claims sooner, but did rule that he could proceed on allegations about other unlawful information gathering, such as the newspapers alleged use of private investigators hired to dig up dirt on him.
Harry’s claims against the Sun came days after his wife Meghan Markle sued the Mail on Sunday and its parent company, Associated Newspapers, for publishing a private letter she wrote to her estranged father, Thomas Markle. It later transpired through text messages that Meghan wrote the letter to protect Prince Harry from “constant berating” from the royal family to do something to stop Thomas talking to the media.
A trial over the use of private detectives will begin in January barring any settlement reached ahead of time. It is one of four cases that Harry is pursuing at the High Court against British publishers.
