News Group Newspapers deny or do not admit the hundreds of alleged crimes contained in the explosive 127-page file – but lawyers for Prince Harry claim they have the evidence to back-up the allegations.
By Graham Johnson | Editor, Byline Investigates
Byline Investigates is today publishing the legal papers which threaten to bring down Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper empire.
The document claims that editors and senior executives went on a 20-year crime spree in Fleet Street by hacking phones and commissioning Private Investigators on an industrial scale.
However, the most serious allegation is that the corporation’s controlling minds embarked on an epic cover-up, by concealing the wrong-doing, destroying evidence en masse to cover their tracks – and then covering-up the cover-up.
Lawyers for News Group Newspapers ‘do not admit’ most of the allegations and outright deny the rest.
The claims have never been tested at trial because Murdoch’s company has settled every case that has ever come to court.
So far, the strategy has prevented a High Court judge from making findings either way.
However, the out-of-court settlements have come at a high price. Experts estimate that the hacking litigation – at just under 20 years, one of the longest running legal disputes in history – has cost Murdoch around £1.2 billion.
Next week, on Wednesday March 20th, lawyers for victims of unlawful information gathering – including Prince Harry – will seek to add further explosive allegations into the mix.
The document is officially known by its legal title, the ‘Re-Amended Generic Particulars of Concealment and Destruction – June 2020.’
But sources have likened the allegations to a ‘crime novel in which the twists read like mafia story.’
Read the full document here:
Read NGN’s Defence to the allegations here:
