‘I’ve never hacked a phone’: Piers Morgan’s defence as he launches rant against Prince Harry

Former Mirror editor Piers Morgan has accused Prince Harry of wanting to “destroy the monarchy” in a scathing attack after a High Court ruling in a privacy case brought by the royal.

Mr Morgan accused Prince Harry of a “hypocritical” approach to privacy in a statement outside his home this afternoon.

Phone hacking by the Mirror Group newspapers was carried out from 1996 to 2011, and was “widespread and habitual” from 1998, a High Court judge found today.

He also said he found it “convincing” that Mr Morgan had known about phone hacking when in charge at the paper.

The broadcaster edited The Mirror from 1995 to 2004.

Prince Harry hacking case – live reaction

But the former editor said this afternoon: “There is just one article relating to the prince published in The Daily Mirror during my entire nine-year tenure as editor that he [the High Court judge] thinks may have involved some unlawful information gathering.

“To be clear, I had then and still have zero knowledge of how that particular story was gathered.”

Mr Morgan said he wanted to reiterate “I’ve never hacked a phone or told anyone else to hack a phone”.

“I wasn’t called as a witness by either side in the case nor was I asked to provide any statement. I would have very happily agreed to do either or both of those things had I been asked,” he added.

“So I wasn’t able to respond to the many false allegations that were spewed about me in court by old foes of mine with an axe to grind.”

Morgan: Prince’s ‘real mission’ is to ‘destroy monarchy’

In reference to Prince Harry, who was part of the case against The Mirror, Mr Morgan said: “I want to say this: Prince Harry’s outrage at media intrusion into the private lives of the Royal Family is only matched by his own ruthless, greedy and hypocritical enthusiasm for doing it himself.

“He also says he’s on a mission to reform the media when it’s become clear his real mission, along with his wife, is to destroy the British monarchy.

“He talked today about the appalling behaviour of the press. But this is a guy who’s repeatedly trashed his family in public for hundreds of millions of dollars, even as two of its most senior and respected members were dying – his grandparents.

“It’s hard to imagine, frankly, more appalling behaviour than that,” he added.

“As for him saying this is a good day for truth, the duke has been repeatedly exposed in recent years as someone who wouldn’t know the truth if it slapped him around his California-tanned face.

“He demands accountability for the press, but refuses to accept any for himself for smearing the Royal Family, his own family, as a bunch of callous racists without producing a shred of proof to support those disgraceful claims.”

Read more:
What were the articles at the centre of the case?
Key findings in the judgment
Harry wins round one of tabloid battle – but he’s far from finished

The broadcaster also took aim at ex-political strategist Alastair Campbell and royal journalist Omid Scobie, who were both witnesses in the case.

“The judge appears to have believed the evidence of Omid Scobie, who lied about me in his new book, and he lied about me in court, and the whole world now knows him to be a deluded fantasist,” Mr Morgan said.

“And he believed the evidence of Alastair Campbell, another proven liar who spun this country into an illegal war.”