Prince Harry and other celebrities accuse a British magazine publisher of using illegal spying methods for reporting. Piers Morgan, the former editor, is said to have known about it.
Prince Harry has been at loggerheads with the British media for years. Apparently not without reason, because a former employee and close confidante of the Sussexes, Omid Scobie, has now confirmed that he had to witness first-hand how celebrities were bugged while working for the publisher at the time. Scobie also says former Mirror boss Piers Morgan, who ran the paper from 1995 to 2004, knew about it.
The trial of the British publishing house Mirror Group Newspapers, which owns the tabloids Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People, began in the first week of May. The lawsuit, which is a class action lawsuit brought by more than 100 people, including Prince Harry and other celebrities, is primarily intended to help the lesser-known victims, aiming for damages.
The main charge of the trial is that the publisher is said to have used illegal methods between 1991 and 2011 to obtain spicy information. These include hiring private detectives, obtaining medical records and hacking cell phones. On Monday of the second week, Omid Scobie appeared before the High Court in London and confirmed his testimony that celebrities were illegally bugged.
Prince Harry and many others appear to be victims of a wiretapping scandal
Scobie himself worked as an intern for the publishing house under Piers Morgan as editor-in-chief in 2002. At that time it was about a story about the singer Kylie Minogue. Scobie reports that Morgan was “reassured” when he heard the source of the tabloid story was listening to the singer’s voicemails.
Morgan, now a well-known anchorman working for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, has always denied involvement in or knowledge of phone hacking or any other illegal activity.
Piers Morgan is also known these days for speaking out in the media against Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan’s actions. “I will not be lecturing on the invasion of privacy by Prince Harry, someone who has spent the last three years recklessly and cynically propagating the privacy of the royal family for huge commercial reasons and telling a lot of lies about them.” Morgan recently told ITV News.
Omid Scobie was hired to hack phone numbers himself
But Omid Scobie gives other incriminating details before the court, such as that he was given a list of cellphone numbers to hack when he was a journalism student at The Sunday People a few months earlier. This has already been confirmed by former employee Dan Evans, who was even convicted of phone hacking in 2014. During his time at the Sunday Mirror magazine, he too was said to have been pressured by executives to delve into the privacy of celebrity cell phones for stories.
The lawyer for the publisher MGN vehemently denied the allegations. Scobie accused Scobie that his memories were false and that his friendship with Prince Harry could distort his memories.
The trial, which is expected to last about seven weeks, will initially focus on general claims against MGN before later turning to the specific claims of Harry and three other victims. Prince Harry is due to testify in person at the beginning of June, making him the first British royal since the 19th century to testify in court.
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Source: Stern
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
