Mirror Group Newspapers has argued at the High Court that Prince Harry should receive only £500 in damages at the end of his phone hacking trial.

The Duke of Sussex is seeking over £200,000 in compensation, alleging that he was the victim of illegal activity by journalists working for the Mirror, the Sunday Mirror, and The People.

Earlier this month, Prince Harry made history as the first royal in 130 years to give evidence in a court case.

He stated in the High Court that there was concrete evidence of him being illegally targeted.

Expressing his lack of trust in the Mirror’s denials, he said, “My whole life, the press have mistled me in order to cover up their wrongdoing.”

Mirror Group Newspapers acknowledged the Prince’s experience of media intrusion and expressed sympathy.

However, they argued that he had no evidence of being a victim of phone hacking or widespread illegal activity by their newspapers.

The publisher did admit that on one occasion, a journalist from The People paid £75 to a private investigator to acquire information about Harry’s visit to a London VIP nightclub in 2004.

They suggested that the small amount indicated limited inquiries and proposed that the judge award the Prince just £500 in compensation.

During the six-week trial, Andrew Green Casey, the publisher’s barrister, contended in his closing submission that Harry’s complaint was against general intrusion by the entire media.

He emphasized that the Prince lacked specific evidence of wrongdoing by the Mirror’s titles.

While acknowledging that the Mirror had hacked the voicemails of several celebrities in the 2000s and paid substantial damages, Green argued that there was no evidence of their reporters targeting Harry’s phone.

He also claimed that many of the stories about Harry, supposedly obtained illegally, were either trivial or provided by legitimate sources such as Palace Spokespeople, implying that Harry had no expectation of privacy.

It is worth noting that Prince Harry has previously had his phone hacked by Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World.

He is currently pursuing two separate phone hacking cases against the publishers of The Sun and the Daily Mail.

David Sherborne, Harry’s barrister, highlighted the absence of key witnesses, including former Mirror editor Piers Morgan, who has consistently denied commissioning phone hacking.

Sherborne remarked, “It’s not so much Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark; it’s Hamlet without the entire Royal Court.”

The Prince’s case is part of a broader trial concerning phone hacking at Mirror Group Newspapers.

The trial is set to conclude on Friday, with a judgment expected in the autumn.

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