According to Prince Harry’s phone-hacking trial, Omid Scobie, a royal biographer, revealed that Piers Morgan, the former editor of the Daily Mirror, was aware that his journalists were using private voicemails as the basis for their stories. Scobie, who worked at the Daily Mirror in 2002, overheard Morgan discussing the sourcing of a story about Kylie Minogue, learning that it had come from voicemails. Morgan, known for his hands-on approach, showed confidence in the use of voicemail information for the story.
Prince Harry and other alleged victims claim that Morgan and Mirror executives authorized illegal practices to obtain exclusive stories, including accessing voicemails and engaging in financial record “blagging.” However, Morgan has consistently denied any knowledge of commissioning stories based on illegal voicemail interception during his tenure at the Daily Mirror.
Mirror Group Newspapers, the publisher of Daily Mirror, disputes much of the evidence in the trial, arguing that the claimants, including Prince Harry, have waited too long to bring their cases. The barrister representing the Mirror suggested that Scobie fabricated the incident involving Morgan, referring to it as a “false memory” due to Scobie’s vested interest in helping Prince Harry. It was revealed that Scobie had received authorization from the Sussexes’ former spokesperson to be briefed for his book, “Finding Freedom.”
Scobie clarified that his contact with the royal couple was solely through their spokesperson and that he aimed to be fair in his writing about them, unlike other royal correspondents. He expressed his expectation of heavy criticism from tabloid newspapers for testifying in the trial and addressed the misrepresentation of his relationship with the couple by outlets like the Daily Mail.
Prince Harry is one of four alleged phone-hacking victims in the ongoing civil trial at the high court. The victims claim that journalists working for Mirror Group Newspapers, with the knowledge of senior executives, illegally targeted them through phone hacking. Phone hacking involved attempting to access voicemails by guessing the pin code, leading to numerous legal proceedings over the years.
Apart from this case, Prince Harry has also brought separate phone-hacking claims against the publishers of the Sun and the Daily Mail. Scobie revealed that he had encountered phone hacking during his work experience at the People, the Mirror’s sister newspaper, where a journalist provided him with a list of mobile numbers and instructions on how to listen to voicemails, an act he refused to carry out due to its immorality.
The trial previously heard testimony from former Sunday Mirror journalist Dan Evans, who stated that illegal activity was commonplace at the tabloid newspaper and that he was taught how to hack phones by its former editor, Tina Weaver.