A London High Court judge blocked Prince Harry from adding media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and journalist Piers Morgan to his ongoing phone hacking lawsuit against News Group Newspapers, RadarOnline.com has learned.
The judge, Mr. Justice Fancourt, reportedly considered Prince Harry’s allegations against Murdoch and Morgan as "not material" to the case, currently scheduled for trial in January 2025.
Prince Harry, along with 40 additional plaintiffs, are suing News Group Newspapers – the publisher of The Sun and the now-defunct News of the World – for alleged phone hacking and unlawful information gathering.
Murdoch owns NGN, while Morgan – known for his public feud with Prince Harry – was an editor at News of the World from 1994 to 1996.
According to Mediaite, the London High Court judge not only blocked Prince Harry's attempt to include Murdoch and Morgan in the lawsuit but also stated that such a move could not be "an end in itself."
The ruling was made on Tuesday, and the case is now set to go to trial in January 2025 as initially scheduled.
Prince Harry and the 40 plaintiffs reportedly sought to involve high-profile figures like Murdoch and Morgan – dubbed "trophy targets” – in the legal proceedings ever since the lawsuit against NGN was first filed back in 2019.
The judge rejected the move and emphasized that the case must focus on the core issues at hand.
The decision not to include Murdoch and Morgan in the ongoing lawsuit resulted in significant implications for the upcoming trial – particularly because it ultimately narrowed the scope of the case and emphasized the primary allegations against NGN regarding the accusations of phone hacking and unlawful information gathering.
NGN later responded to the judge’s ruling on Tuesday and stated that the court had both “vindicated their position” and had not allowed “significant” parts of the proposed amendments.
The publisher also pointed out that similar allegations had been addressed in "previous criminal courts and police investigations."
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“The court in its judgment today has thoroughly vindicated NGN’s position and did not give permission to introduce large and significant portions of the amendments,” the publishing group said, according to Mediaite.
“NGN welcomes the judge’s decisions and comments,” the publisher added.
Despite the setback, Prince Harry's legal team was permitted to name and make allegations against other journalists and private investigators involved in the case.
As RadarOnline.com reported, Prince Harry’s setback was not the first time the Duke of Sussex suffered a loss in court in connection to his several different lawsuits against British newspapers.
Harry was ordered to pay the publisher of another British newspaper more than $60,000 in damages in December 2023 after the renegade royal lost a legal challenge in an ongoing libel case against the outlet.
A High Court judge had ruled that Prince Harry had to pay Associated Newspapers Limited – publisher of The Mail on Sunday – approximately $60,865 by the end of the year.