Prince Harry's court battle with Murdoch papers begins

By Michael Holden and Sam Tobin

LONDON (Reuters) -Prince Harry's legal battle against Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper group over alleged unlawful information gathering was delayed on Tuesday amid chaos over last-minute discussions on a possible settlement.

The case was expected to return to London's High Court on Wednesday after both legal teams asked for more time to hammer out a deal over a lawsuit that the prince first brought in 2019.

Harry and former senior lawmaker Tom Watson are suing News Group Newspapers over alleged unlawful activities carried out by journalists and private investigators working for its papers, the Sun and the defunct News of the World, from 1996 until 2011.

NGN has paid out hundreds of millions of pounds to victims of phone-hacking and other unlawful information gathering by the News of the World, and settled more than 1,300 lawsuits, but Harry has said his mission is not money but to get to the truth.

At what was supposed to be the start of an eight-week trial, the two legal teams asked Judge Timothy Fancourt for more time.

"There have been very intense discussions over the last few days," NGN's lawyer, Anthony Hudson, said.

Hudson and David Sherborne, lawyer for the prince and Watson, also cited "time difference difficulties" in a reference to Harry, who lives in California.

Hudson said that if the trial started, "a very substantial sum becomes payable" which he said would "have a very significant impact on the settlement dynamic".

Fancourt said he would not give the parties more time, and refused permission to appeal against his decision. But he then exited the court, visibly angry, to leave the parties to appeal directly to the Court of Appeal, a move he acknowledged meant they would probably achieve their ends anyway.

'THE TRUTH'

The prince has said he hopes to get to the truth, after other claimants settled cases to avoid the risk of a multi-million pound legal bill that could be imposed even if they won in court but had rejected NGN's offer.

"One of the main reasons for seeing this through is accountability, because I'm the last person that can actually achieve that," Harry, who is set to appear as a witness himself in February if the trial goes ahead, said last month.

The more than 1,300 lawsuits settled by NGN include cases involving celebrities, politicians, well-known sports figures and ordinary people who were connected to them or major events.

Harry's legal team has said in earlier court documents that his older brother Prince William, the heir to the throne, had settled his own case against NGN in 2020 for "a very large sum of money".

While Murdoch closed the News of the World in 2011, the publisher has always rejected claims there was any unlawful activity at the Sun and says it will fully defend the claims.

The trial was due to first consider "generic issues" such as the extent of any phone-hacking and unlawful information gathering at the papers.

Harry's team plan to argue that senior executives and editors knew unlawful behaviour was widespread, and allege that they misled police, provided false statements to a public inquiry into media ethics held from 2011-12 and instigated a massive cover-up with the deletion of millions of emails.

"This allegation is wrong, unsustainable, and is strongly denied," a spokesperson for NGN said.

(Reporting by Michael Holden, Editing by William Maclean and Timothy Heritage)