Prince Harry’s statement in full after devastating High Court defeat | Royal | News

The Duke joined forces with Baroness Doreen Lawrence, the mother of Stephen Lawrence, a black British teenager killed in a racist attack in South East London in 1993, to make a statement following the decision. It began: “We came to court seeking justice and accountability, but we got neither.

“This decision represents a complete reversal of the position taken by previous judges in relation to hacking allegations that were successfully made against both News Group Newspapers and Mirror Group Newspapers, which were represented by the judge who made this decision at the time.

“In these parallel allegations, the general findings by the courts that various private investigators engaged in unlawful activity simultaneously in relation to similar stories and public figures were completely ignored.

“The fact that the court chose to dismiss them represents an inconsistency or evidence heard in the courtroom that is difficult to understand or reconcile with common sense.

“This is a complete and obvious exoneration, but unfortunately not entirely unexpected. But the court’s attempts to exonerate the Mail are as shocking as they are completely misplaced.”

“When the court says there is insufficient evidence of wrongdoing, even though the documents show the contrary, one wonders how justice will be served.

“There is no need to look back to the time when a private investigator used by the Mail admitted on tape to unlawfully implicating Baroness Lawrence, or when a journalist recorded the names of private detectives he used to obtain information about highly sensitive medical information that even the Mail was worried about publishing, or when another private investigator emailed one of the journalists the real British Airways seat number and ticket details of a teenage girl visiting her boyfriend in return for payment.

“It feels like there’s one rule for newspapers here and another for plaintiffs.

“When the plaintiffs presented evidence, the Mail journalists simply denied it, and the court uncritically chose to believe them, even in the face of inconsistencies, contradictions and blatant lies that were obvious to impartial observers in court when compared with the documents.

“We presented evidence to the court that we believed was credible at the time and remains so now. We want to thank our legal team for all their hard work and all the witnesses who were brave enough to come forward in the pursuit of justice.”