Hugh Grant’s Lawsuit Alleging Illegal Snooping By The Sun Tabloid Cleared For Trial

BRITAIN  — LONDON Actor Hugh Grant filed suit against the publisher of The Sun tabloid on Friday, claiming that the tabloid’s hired journalists and investigators had illegally snooped on him.

According to Justice Timothy Fancourt, a trial will have to decide if News Group Newspapers, owned by Rupert Murdoch, illegally tapped Grant’s home phone, bugged his car, and broke into his house to acquire information.

These claims, Fancourt ruled, “would establish very serious, deliberate wrongdoing at NGN, conducted on an institutional basis, on a huge scale, if true.” The trial is scheduled to begin in January 2024. “Of particular relevance…, they would also establish a concerted effort to conceal the wrongdoing by hiding and destroying relevant documentary evidence, repeated public denials, lies to regulators and authorities, and unwarranted threats to those who dared to make allegations or notify intended claims against The Sun.”

News Group said at a hearing last month that Grant and Prince Harry’s claims of illegal information collecting should be dismissed since they were filed more than six years late.

Since the court wants to hear more in a hearing in July about Harry’s allegations that he was blocked from bringing his phone hacking claims much sooner because of a “secret agreement” between Buckingham Palace and News Group officials, the judgment did not address the Duke of Sussex’s case.

The judge dismissed the actor Grant’s claims of phone hacking because, had he been aware of the voicemail interception issue, he might have brought such a claim much sooner. Grant has been a prominent member of the Hacked Off press reform organization.

Actor Hugh Grant filed suit against the publisher of The Sun tabloid on Friday.

Grant previously settled on a phone hacking case with the erstwhile News of the World, now part of News Group. During the height of the hacking scandal in 2011, the tabloid was shut down after it was revealed that it had hacked into the voicemails of a murdered girl and those of famous people, professional athletes, politicians, and even the royal family.

News Group has said there was no improper data collection from The Sun.

Even though the actor said he didn’t find out about the phone tapping, bugging, and burglary charges until 2021, the judge ruled that the case could move forward because of these claims.

Grant said that besides hacking his phone and tapping his landline, Burrows knew that The Sun staff had broken into his home and that a tracking device had been installed in his vehicle. “This is mind-boggling to me.”

Grant claimed he would never know for sure who broke into his flat on the fourth floor back in 2011. There was evidence of a struggle within, including a door pried off its hinges, but no missing items. After only two days, The Sun published an article about the home’s interior and the “signs of a domestic row.”

After the phone hacking litigation against News of the World concluded, Prince Harry claimed last month that the royal family settled their disputes with News Group out of court. He claimed his late grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, had agreed to prevent the royal family from testifying in court. An apology, he argued, was necessary to seal the deal.

According to court documents, Harry filed an action in 2019 against his father’s (now King Charles III) wishes because he was fed up with the lack of progress on the settlement. After filing a lawsuit against News Group for allegedly hacking phones, he said his brother, Prince William, the heir to the throne, received a “huge” compensation.

Actor Hugh Grant filed suit against the publisher of The Sun tabloid on Friday.

To clarify, NGN says there was no “secret agreement.” The palace has addressed neither that nor William’s purported compromise in their responses to inquiries.

On Friday, a News Group representative issued a statement expressing the company’s satisfaction with the court’s decision to dismiss Grant’s phone hacking claims.

An excerpt from the statement reads, “NGN strongly denies the various historical allegations of unlawful information-gathering contained in what is left of Mr. Grant’s claim.”

Harry sued three British tabloid publishers, including News Group, for phone hacking.

A lawyer for Harry and three others are testifying against the Daily Mirror’s publisher at Fancourt for suspected illegal information collecting dating back to the 1990s. Next month, Harry is scheduled to testify in court.

Cases filed by Duke Elton John, actor/model Elizabeth Hurley, and others against the publisher of the Daily Mail are currently being reviewed by a different court to determine whether or not they should proceed to trial.

SOURCE – (AP)