The Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry, alongside over 40 claimants, has filed a lawsuit against News Group Newspapers (NGN). The litigation alleges that billionaire media titan Rupert Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive of News UK, concealed misconduct within the organization from the mid-1990s until 2016 – including the company’s phone hacking scandal. Additionally, the filing suggests that Murdoch provided false evidence, as did Brooks.
Additional players in Murdoch’s orbit identified in the filing include Will Lewis, former News International executive and current publisher of the Washington Post. The case against NGN — scheduled to start in January of next year — is one of the six ongoing legal battles in which Prince Harry is engaged.
Allegations leveled in the case also include the mysterious disappearance of a computer hard drive belonging to Brooks, which the claimants argue was explained away with false evidence provided to police by NGN. Among the claimants joining Prince Harry in the lawsuit against NGN are actor Hugh Grant, film director Guy Ritchie, and Baroness Doreen Lawrence. Lawrence and Prince Harry are claimants in a separate lawsuit against The Daily Mail.
NGN responded to the allegations, calling them a “cynical attack on the integrity” of company staff, past and present. The media group also questioned the ulterior motives of the lawsuit, suggesting that some claimants may be exploiting the case to further their personal agendas against the tabloid press.