Royal Drama Unfolds: Prince Harry Alleges Murdoch Cover-Up in Tabloid Lawsuit

Attorneys representing Prince Harry and other claimants filed an application on Wednesday to amend the lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch’s British tabloids, alleging the media tycoon’s direct personal involvement in covering up wrongdoings. Over 40 individuals, including British film director Guy Ritchie, actor Hugh Grant, and campaigner Doreen Lawrence, are suing News Group Newspapers (NGN) over privacy breaches committed by its tabloids between the mid-1990s and 2016.

The lawsuit, to be tried in January, introduces new claims that NGN’s executives misled Parliament and a public inquiry. The amended allegations now implicate 93-year-old Murdoch and News UK CEO Brooks in giving false testimony. Also found to be involved in the alleged cover-up is former News International Executive Will Lewis.

NGN flatly contradicted the allegations, dismissing them as a “scurrilous and cynical attack” on their integrity. The claimants were described as setting more “broad agendas” against the tabloid press, SMG lawyers claimed, likening the addition of 200 fresh individuals, including journalists and private investigators, as pointless and superfluous.

It is based on NGN’s earlier admission over wholesale phone-hacking at the now-defunct News of the World, for which it has said it has paid out more than 1,300 settlements. Despite those admissions, NGN denies any wrongdoing by its staff at the Sun. Brooks, acquitted of charges of phone hacking in 2014, is now under renewed focus over allegations of misinformation.

Harry’s lawyers said that both Brooks and Murdoch had given them the wrong legal information regarding the criminality information gathering and had failed to deliver information from a former IT engineer about the hiding of a computer drive belonging to Brooks.

Harry’s application to amend the case is still before the court, and it will decide whether or not to accept the new allegations.