Actor Hugh Grant can take some of lawsuit against Murdoch paper to trial
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[May 26, 2023]
By Sam Tobin
LONDON (Reuters) - British actor Hugh Grant's claims that journalists at
the Sun used private investigators to tap his phone and burgle his house
can proceed to trial, but his voicemail interception allegations were
made too late, London’s High Court ruled on Friday.
Grant, alongside Prince Harry, is suing Rupert Murdoch's News Group
Newspapers (NGN) for widespread alleged unlawful information gathering
that he says was committed on behalf of its tabloid, the Sun.
Judge Timothy Fancourt said in a written ruling on Friday that Grant's
allegations of voicemail interception – widely known as "phone-hacking"
– were outside a six-year time limit for legal action.
But the judge said the question of whether Grant's allegations of
"landline tapping, bugging, blagging, burglary and instructions to
private investigators to do any of those things" were brought too late
must be determined at a trial due to take place in January 2024.
An NGN spokesperson said the publisher was pleased that Grant's
phone-hacking claim against the Sun was thrown out by the court.
"NGN strongly denies the various historical allegations of unlawful
information gathering contained in what remains of Mr Grant's claim,"
the added.
NGN had also asked the judge to throw out Harry's lawsuit at a hearing
in April but a ruling in his case is not expected until after a further
hearing in July, at which Harry will ask for permission to rely on an
alleged "secret agreement" between Buckingham Palace and senior figures
at NGN.
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![](../images/052623PIX/ent_b.29.jpg)
Hugh Grant walks outside the High Court,
in London, Britain April 27, 2023. REUTERS/Maja Smiejkowska
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/May/26/images/ads/current/bennet_lda_010722.png) PRESS REFORM CAMPAIGNER
Grant – famous for film comedies such as "Notting Hill" – has become
a prominent campaigner on press reform since the phone-hacking
scandal emerged.
He previously brought a lawsuit against NGN in relation to the
now-defunct News of the World tabloid, which was settled in 2012.
His latest lawsuit alleged Sun reporters used private investigators
to tap his landline phone, place listening and tracking devices on
his house and car, burgle his property and obtain his private
information by deception.
NGN denies the allegations and its lawyers argued at April's hearing
that it was "unreal" for Grant to have not known enough to bring a
lawsuit in relation to the Sun earlier than he did.
Friday's ruling comes amid an ongoing trial concerning allegations
of unlawful information gathering brought by Harry and others
against Mirror Group Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mirror,
Sunday Mirror and Sunday People.
Harry is due to give evidence in person in early June, the first
British royal to do so since the 19th century.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin and Michael Holden; Editing by Alex
Richardson)
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