‘I’ve never hacked a phone’: Piers Morgan’s defence as he launches rant against Prince Harry

Former Mirror editor Piers Morgan has accused Prince Harry of wanting to “destroy the monarchy” in a scathing attack after a High Court ruling in a privacy case brought by the royal.

Mr Morgan accused Prince Harry of a “hypocritical” approach to privacy in a statement outside his home this afternoon.

Phone hacking by the Mirror Group newspapers was carried out from 1996 to 2011, and was “widespread and habitual” from 1998, a High Court judge found today.

Judge Timothy Fancourt said hacking was “extensive from 2006” and referred to a ruling in 2015 that had found hacking was “extensive and habitual” from 1999 to 2006. He said the practice continued “to some extent” during the Leveson Inquiry into media standards in 2011 and 2012.

The judge also said he found it “convincing” that Mr Morgan had known about phone hacking when in charge of the paper, which he edited from 1995 to 2004.

Prince Harry hacking case – live reaction

After the judgment, Mr Morgan made a statement outside his home. “There is just one article relating to the prince published in The Daily Mirror during my entire nine-year tenure as editor that he [the High Court judge] thinks may have involved some unlawful information gathering,” he said.

“To be clear, I had then and still have zero knowledge of how that particular story was gathered.”

Mr Morgan said he wanted to reiterate “I’ve never hacked a phone or told anyone else to hack a phone”.

“I wasn’t called as a witness by either side in the case nor was I asked to provide any statement. I would have very happily agreed to do either or both of those things had I been asked,” he added.

“So I wasn’t able to respond to the many false allegations that were spewed about me in court by old foes of mine with an axe to grind.”

Overall, Judge Fancourt ruled that the Duke of Sussex‘s case was “proved in part”, with 15 of the 33 articles presented in court found to be the product of phone hacking or other unlawful information gathering.

He said the duke’s phone was probably only hacked to a modest extent and was “carefully controlled by certain people” from the end of 2003 to April 2009.

But the judge added that there was a tendency by the duke to assume everything was a result of hacking.

He awarded Prince Harry a total sum of £140,600, which he said was aggregated as directors of the newspaper group knew and “turned a blind eye and positively concealed it”.

In a statement read by his lawyer David Sherborne, Prince Harry said: “Today’s ruling is vindicating and affirming. I have been told that slaying dragons will get you burned, but in light of today’s victory and the importance of doing what is needed for a free and honest press, it is a worthwhile price to pay.”

Morgan: Prince’s ‘real mission’ is to ‘destroy monarchy’

In his statement, Mr Morgan heavily criticised Prince Harry. “I want to say this: Prince Harry’s outrage at media intrusion into the private lives of the Royal Family is only matched by his own ruthless, greedy and hypocritical enthusiasm for doing it himself.

“He also says he’s on a mission to reform the media when it’s become clear his real mission, along with his wife, is to destroy the British monarchy.

“He talked today about the appalling behaviour of the press. But this is a guy who’s repeatedly trashed his family in public for hundreds of millions of dollars, even as two of its most senior and respected members were dying – his grandparents.

“It’s hard to imagine, frankly, more appalling behaviour than that,” he said.

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Mr Morgan added: “As for him saying this is a good day for truth, the duke has been repeatedly exposed in recent years as someone who wouldn’t know the truth if it slapped him around his California-tanned face.

“He demands accountability for the press, but refuses to accept any for himself for smearing the Royal Family, his own family, as a bunch of callous racists without producing a shred of proof to support those disgraceful claims.”

Read more:
What were the articles at the centre of the case?
Key findings in the judgment
Analysis: Harry wins round one of tabloid battle – but he’s far from finished

The broadcaster also took aim at former political strategist Alastair Campbell and royal journalist Omid Scobie, who were both witnesses in the case.

“The judge appears to have believed the evidence of Omid Scobie, who lied about me in his new book, and he lied about me in court, and the whole world now knows him to be a deluded fantasist,” Mr Morgan said.

“And he believed the evidence of Alastair Campbell, another proven liar who spun this country into an illegal war.”

Mr Campbell insisted he had been cleared of lying over the Iraq war, as he responded to Mr Morgan’s allegations about him in a post on the social media website X.

He said: “Oh dearie me Piers Morgan seems to have forgotten about the several inquiries, including with evidence given on oath, which cleared me of lying or any other wrongdoing in relation to Iraq (an issue which was not, so far as I am aware, part of his never ending beef with Harry).”

Mr Campbell added he felt “duty bound” to give evidence about “illegal activity” but that he had no desire to harm the Mirror, a newspaper he used to work for.

He also accused Mr Morgan of “defensiveness” after the court judgment.

Two directors knew about phone hacking

Meanwhile, the judge also found that two directors at MGN – Paul Vickers and Sly Bailey – knew about phone hacking but did not inform the rest of the board.

“It was concealed from the board, parliament, the public, the Leveson Inquiry,” he said.

A spokesperson for Mirror Group said: “We welcome today’s judgment that gives the business the necessary clarity to move forward from events that took place many years ago.

“Where historical wrongdoing took place, we apologise unreservedly, have taken full responsibility and paid appropriate compensation.”

Hacked Off, the campaign group established in 2011 after the phone hacking revelations, said in a statement that today’s judgment “lays bare the extraordinary cover-up which has taken place at Mirror Group Newspapers over the last two decades”.