Prince Harry's Bombshell Phone-Hacking Testimony Contained 'Troubling Factual Inconsistencies': High Court Judge
April 27 2023, Published 11:30 a.m. ET
The High Court judge overseeing Prince Harry’s phone-hacking lawsuit claimed this week that the royal’s latest testimony contained “troubling factual inconsistencies” with his previous claims regarding the matter, RadarOnline.com has learned.
The judge’s surprising remarks came on Tuesday after the Duke of Sussex claimed a “secret agreement” between the royal family and news executives at Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN) “prevented” the prince from filing a lawsuit earlier.
But according to the High Court judge, Justice Fancourt, Harry’s testimony on Tuesday contradicted the duke’s original argument that he did not sue NGN before 2019 because he “did not have the knowledge” about the alleged phone hacking until then.
“Another thing that is troubling me is what appears to be a factual inconsistency in the current pleaded case about the way the Duke of Sussex did not have the knowledge before 2019 to bring a claim and your proposed amendment which seems to say he would have brought a claim in 2012 except for the secret agreement,” Justice Fancourt said.
“I'm talking about the factual inconsistencies in the way the case is pleaded,” the judge added after Harry’s attorney, David Sherborne, argued that a claim made in 2012 would be “totally different” from the claim being made now.
Justice Fancourt also questioned Harry’s attorney over the decision to “suddenly introduce” new evidence without properly filing an application to submit the new material to the court.
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, a preliminary hearing was held on Tuesday in connection to Prince Harry’s allegations that Murdoch’s NGN hacked his phone and voicemails for the now-defunct News of the World and the Sun tabloid outlets.
Tuesday’s hearing was reportedly held to decide whether the renegade royal’s case against NGN would go to trial, and Harry claimed during the hearing that Murdoch’s Britain-based media company and Buckingham Palace engaged in a “secret deal.”
The “secret deal” was allegedly organized by Queen Elizabeth and Murdoch in 2012, and it was purportedly made in an effort to keep the royal family from suing Murdoch’s publications until a series of lawsuits already made against NGN were settled.
Court documents connected to Prince Harry’s lawsuit against NGN also revealed this week that Murdoch allegedly made a “very large” under-the-table payment to Prince William regarding the phone-hacking scandal.
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Although the full amount and details were not made public, the court documents indicated Murdoch settled with Prince William for “a very large sum of money in 2020."
NGN has since denied there was a “secret deal” between the media company and the royal family.
