'An overwhelming vindication of our journalism': Associated Newspapers editor-in-chief Paul Dacre hails Daily Mail victory over Prince Harry in phone-hacking case

By INDERDEEP BAINS, CHIEF NEWS CORRESPONDENT Published: 16:22, 7 July 2026 | Updated: 16:23, 7 July 2026 The High Court's ruling dismissing Prince Harry's phone-hacking case against the Daily Mail has been described as an 'overwhelming vindication of our journalism' by former editor Paul Dacre. Speaking after the judgment was handed down this afternoon, Mr Dacre, the editor-in-chief of Associated Newspapers Ltd, said the 'trumped-up action' should never have been brought to trial. He hailed the 'momentous victory' and praised the company's 'magnificent journalists'. Mr Dacre, who was editor of the Daily Mail for 26 years, also branded the legal action 'a conspiracy, supported by Hacked Off, to destroy a paper'. The case was brought by the Duke of Sussex and six fellow claimants, including Sir Elton John, Elizabeth Hurley and Baroness Lawrence. It was heard at a three-month trial at London's High Court at the beginning of this year. The trial judge, Mr Justice Nicklin, accepted that every article complained about was lawfully sourced. The claim was brought against Associated Newspapers, which publishes the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday. Paul Dacre, editor-in-chief of Associated Newspapers Ltd Read Mr Dacre's statement in full here: 'Four years ago, lawyers for Prince Harry, Doreen Lawrence and Elton John accused the Mail, in a blaze of publicity, of placing bugs in homes, cars, cafés and landline phones. We described these charges – some related to stories that were over 30 years old – as 'lurid and preposterous'. Today, in what was a momentous victory for the Mail, the High Court dismissed every single one of the 97 claims. 'That is an OVERWHELMING vindication of our journalism. 'The Mail's famous front-page naming five thugs as Stephen Lawrence's 'MURDERERS', could have seen me jailed for contempt of court. Instead, it triggered the Macpherson Inquiry and the eventual jailing of two of the killers. Stephen's father, Neville, says he owes the Mail everything. Why Baroness Lawrence – for whom we have always had profound respect and sympathy – chose to turn on both the paper, and the brilliant reporter who campaigned for justice for her son for over two decades, is something I will never be able to comprehend. 'Prince Harry wrote a sad book which boasted about his killing of 25 Taliban, his drug-taking and, in cringe-making detail, how he lost his virginity. There isn't a laundry in the cosmos big enough to wash all the dirty linen he has aired about his own family. For him, to complain about HIS privacy being invaded takes, not just the biscuit, but the whole tin. 'Poor Harry. I feel sorry for the way a confused and angry young man has been drawn into this case. The bitter irony is that his mother, Diana, liked the Mail. We were her paper. We took her side in her acrimonious break-up with Charles. She and I would speak and meet. The Mail's superb royal reporter was her friend and confidante. 'The truth is that this trumped-up action – which has cost well over £50million and wasted a huge amount of valuable court time – should never have been brought to trial. That it did, raises profoundly disturbing questions about the conduct of elements of the legal profession. 'Today's verdict is not just a victory for Associated's magnificent journalists – several of whom have had a terrible toll imposed on their health and lives – but a free Press generally. Make no mistake. This was a conspiracy, supported by Hacked Off, to destroy a paper. 'Financed by the orgy-loving, racist Max Mosley and involving the actor Hugh Grant, it was also a sinister bid to resuscitate Leveson Two and impose statutory regulation on the Press which, even now, is rearing its ugly head in Labour's Media Green Paper. 'Some of the allegations made by Harry's lawyers against the Mail involved Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein. They were rejected by the Court. But remember it was the power of the Mail's journalism that, not once, but twice, resulted in Mandelson being sacked as a minister. And it was the Mail on Sunday's exclusive picture of Prince Andrew, with his arm around 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre in Ghislaine Maxwell's home, that, ultimately, resulted in justice for Epstein's underage victims. 'Such justice only happened, as with Stephen Lawrence, because of the actions of a free Press.'