London, Thanasis Gavos

Prince Harry and the MGN Group which publishes the Daily Mirror newspaper reached an out-of-court settlement on Friday for secondary parts of the trial about wiretapping with the Duke of Sussex as his victim.

The case involved Harry being sued for wiretapping and monitoring of messages on his phone by journalists from the MGN group between 1996-2011.

Last December, a London court partially vindicated Harry by ruling that his phone had indeed been monitored but “to a limited extent”. In particular, it was determined that only 15 of the 33 publications that Harry had complained could only be based on intercepted messages were actually the product of illegal activity.

MGN Group was ordered to pay compensation of £140,600 to the claimant.

Today’s hearing in London, with Harry represented by his lawyer David Sherborne, was about who should pay the legal costs, but also whether a further 115 Mirror reports which Harry says are wiretapping should be considered in a new trial. .

As Mr Sherborne announced, the publishing group had agreed to settle the case by paying substantial damages, with an initial payment of £400,000.