The £50 million phone hacking case brought by Prince Harry, Elton John, Doreen Lawrence and a raft of other celebrities against the publishers of the Daily Mail was today dismissed in full. The Mail has the story.
The case brought by the Duke of Sussex and six fellow claimants, also including Sir Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley, was heard at a three-month trial at London’s High Court at the beginning of this year.
The trial judge, Mr Justice Nicklin, accepted that every article complained about was lawfully sourced.
The claim was brought against publisher Associated Newspapers, which publishes the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday.
In an executive summary of his judgment, Mr Justice Nicklin said: “Associated called journalist witnesses who gave lawful explanations for the sourcing of the disputed articles and incidents.
“The Court accepted their evidence, including their denials of UIG [unlawful information gathering].
“The allegations were serious: they included allegations of dishonesty, unlawful conduct and deliberately false evidence. The more serious and less likely an allegation is, the more convincing the evidence must be before a court can find it proved.”
An Associated Newspapers spokesman said: “Associated Newspapers welcomes today’s judgement, which is an overwhelming victory for the Daily Mail and its journalists, and for a free press generally.
“Mr Justice Nicklin today cleared the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday, and dismissed every single one of the 97 allegations made by the claimants. In every case, the judge accepted the honesty of our journalists’ evidence on how they sourced their stories.
“This is a magnificent vindication of the Daily Mail‘s journalism.
“For some of the most outrageous allegations made when the case was launched in a blaze of publicity four years ago – placing bugs in people’s cars and homes, listening to calls as they were made and illicitly accessing bank accounts – no credible evidence was ever presented.”
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Paul Dacre, the Editor-in-Chief of Associated Newspapers, has issued a statement about the victory.
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Brilliant news, and a mighty victory for The Daily Mail and Freedom of Speech!
People sneer at The Daily Mail without ever reading it, because if they did, including the public comments, they’d often find some real gems of crucially important information that other mainstream media are not willing to report.
Now it’s high time for Parliament to remove Prince Harry, his wife & Illegitimate Surrogate Sprogs from the Line of Succession, to carry out the will of the British People. Only Parliament can do it, as the King has no power in that matter.
Speaking of sprogs of mixed ethnicity, here is an example of the two children of a mixed-race Ethnic African parent (like Markle) and a Swedish blonde Ethnic European parent (much lighter hair than Harry’s). The brunette woman with handbag in the photo is not their blonde Swedish mother. As you can see, African + blonde European does not result in blonde children, so can we stop going along with the Markle Surrogate Scam:
Well said!
Good.
The mail takes a lot of flak but at the end of the day they’re more often than not on the right side.
I don’t know enough to say that they’re always to the good, like all these papers their problem is what their readership is interested in, and often that is about celebrity rather than corruption and illegal activities.
They most certainly weren’t “to the good” in aligning with Big Pharma’s vicious attacks on Dr. Malcolm Kendrick and Zoe Strimpnel for their very well founded scientific discussion of the serious side effects of Statins.
Big Pharma’ most profitable drug over many years.
That slander cost the Mail a seven figure sum in damages.
It was Dr Zoe Harcombe (not Strimpfel who I think wa the journalist who wrote the article) who writes extensively on diet, the needless pushing of low fat diets and administering of Statins. Zoe is another hero who fights against the establishment narrative.
To clarify for the record, Drs Harcombe and Kendrick won their libel suit against the Mail on Sunday, securing damages, costs and a full apology.
Kendrick’s book Doctoring Data is definitely worth a read
Yet it subsequently promoted the (nominal) author of the articles.
I remember a column by Peter Hitchens I think it was, saying the unvaccinated should be injected by force if necessary to keep everyone ‘safe’ – never bought a copy again after that…
“This is a magnificent vindication of the Daily Mail‘s journalism.”
Well, I wouldn’t go that far.
I’m not a fan of the Mail, but vindicated on all counts looks pretty magnificent to me.
It’s the word journalism that’s doing the heavy listing there for me – the Daily Fail comes out with some right bollox, I swear it was far less gutter press 20 years back… but perhaps it’s always been the same…
I would. It’s fantastic news.
Now will Baroness Lawrence be able to find time to condescend to give her opinion on the Henry Nowak tragedy? Apologies if I have missed it.
Don’t be naive. There’s only one murder she’s at all bothered about.
Yes, silly me.
Excellent point. I don’t suppose Henry Nowak’s mother is in line to be “Baroness Nowak”?
Or Fusilier Lee Rigby’s mother as “Baroness Rigby”?
Or Kris Donald’s mother as “Baroness Donald”?
Or the Southport mothers? Or Rhiannon Whyte’s mother?
Surely “Baroness Lawrence” would welcome them all, and sit beside them in the House of Lords?
I could go on at great length about this …