British Royal News says that it’s about time this happened. A former royal butler has been given a public apology and substantial damages from the Mirror Newsgroup over phone hacking. Paul Burrell, who was a confidante to Diana, Princess of Wales, brought legal action against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) after he was targeted by private investigators hired by the publisher who listened to his voicemails. Here’s what you need to know.
MGN, who owns the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and The People, also agreed to pay substantial damages and apologized to Burrell from Cheshire for the “repeated invasion of his privacy.” Lawyers for the former royal butler said MGN had also accepted liability for the unlawful acts of private investigators at the High Court in London last week.
Princess Diana’s Former Butler Paul Burrell Finally Gets An Apology Over Phone Hacking Scandal
Lawyer Francis Leonard said: “Between 1995 and 2008 the claimant was targeted by the defendant because he was a close friend and trusted confidante to Princess Diana and then subsequently because of his role within the public sphere following his departure from the royal household. During Diana’s lifetime, the activities of the defendant caused his relationship with her to deteriorate as she wrongly thought that her highly sensitive personal information was being leaked to the press.”
Leonard said MGN had targeted Mr Burrell’s voicemails and also instructed private investigators at least three times between 2001 and 2002. He added that this led to the publication of “numerous articles concerning the claimant arising from unlawfully obtained information which severely impacted his reputation.”
Leonard said that the use of the unlawfully obtained information in the press undermined Mr Burrell’s relationship with his legal team as he prepared for his criminal trial over accusations he stole hundreds of items from Diana’s estate. The trial subsequently collapsed in 2002 and he was cleared when it emerged that he had informed the Queen, shortly after the princess’s death in August 1997, that he had taken some items for safekeeping.
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