Prince Harry won a lawsuit against the publisher of the British tabloid Daily Mirror over articles stemming from the hacking of his phone messages, his first major victory in his war against the tabloid press, AFP reported.
Through his lawyer David Sherborne, the youngest son of King Charles III welcomed the decision. "The mission continues," he added.
The decision was the first in a series of legal proceedings brought by the 39-year-old prince against the British press.
It ordered the publisher of the Daily Mirror to pay him £140,600 in damages.
The judge found that 15 of the 33 disputed articles used in the proceedings - published between 1996 and 2009 - were the result of hacking into the voicemails of the Duke of Sussex or his entourage, as well as other illegal methods.
The magistrate also pointed out Prince Harry's "tendency" to believe that "everything that has been published is the product of his voicemail being hacked", as this practice was "prevalent within the Mirror Group at the time".
But this practice "was not the only journalistic tool at the time, and the claims in relation to the other 18 articles do not stand up to scrutiny," he added.
The magistrate also highlighted the "suffering" that Harry had suffered "as a result of the illegal activity directed against him and his relatives".
During the trial, the prince, who is at odds with the royal family, gave evidence for eight hours spread over two days at a hearing in June last year.
It was the first time a member of the royal family took the witness stand since Edward VII did so in 1891 for a libel trial.
"Phone hacking was being practiced on an industrial scale by at least three newspapers at the time, there is no doubt about that," the Duke of Sussex said on June 7, the second day of his evidence.
Prince Harry has a persistent dislike of the tabloid press, which he holds responsible for the death of his mother, Princess Diana, who was chased by paparazzi in Paris in 1997.
He also blamed the press for what he described as harassment of his wife, Meghan Markle, and his poor relationship with her family. /BGNES
