‘Hard to imagine’ further legal claims against NGN, says judge

The judge overseeing the Duke of Sussex’s settled legal claim against the publisher of The Sun said it would be “hard to imagine” others will take the same allegations to trial.

Mr Justice Fancourt said that as a result of Harry and Lord Tom Watson, the former Labour deputy leader, settling their legal claims against News Group Newspapers (NGN) on Wednesday, their allegations of unlawful information gathering had not been tested at trial.

He added that it would be “hard to imagine” other claimants would take them to trial in future, with NGN saying in a statement following the settlement that any new cases would be “liable” to being thrown out.

His comments came after the court heard from David Sherborne, barrister for the duke and Lord Watson, who said that the two sides had “reached an agreement” which saw NGN offer a “full and unequivocal apology” to the duke for “serious intrusion by The Sun between 1996 and 2011 into his private life”.

It also apologised to Harry for “phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators” at the now-defunct News Of The World, which it also ran.

After the settlement was announced in court, Mr Justice Fancourt addressed the dozens of journalists and members of the public sat in court in the Rolls Building in London, dozens more sitting in an overspill court in the same building, and those watching on a remote link.

He said: “I am sorry that you were kept waiting around yesterday expecting the trial to start.

“I am sorry that for some time yesterday, it was unclear to a lot of you what was happening.

“These things happen sometimes in litigation and there is a limit to what can be said in circumstances where a settlement is in the final throws of negotiation.”

He continued: “It is obviously regrettable that the agreement was only reached at a very late stage after huge resources, both private and public, have been dedicated to preparing these very complex claims for trial, but that is the parties’ prerogative.”

He added: “There is nothing for the court to decide. For these reasons, I will make a settlement order disposing of these claims.”

The judge also said that some details would remain confidential.