CPS ‘avoided embarrassing’ royals, claim

THE DUKE and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Harry and several royal aides were all targets of hacking, but the News of the World reporter who admitted his part in it cannot be prosecuted.

By The Newsroom

Published 26th Jun 2014, 06:00 BST

The newspaper’s former royal editor, Clive Goodman, was forced to own up to the direct hacking of members of the Royal Family under cross-examination at the Old Bailey.

But he told the jury he had been assured that, if the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) was to attempt to bring more hacking charges against him for crimes the police knew about when he was first prosecuted with private detective Glenn Mulcaire in 2006, it would be considered an “abuse of process”.

The court heard that from December 21 2005 and into 2006, the then Kate Middleton was hacked 155 times, Prince William was hacked 35 times and Prince Harry nine times. Goodman claimed that the CPS never pursued the matter because it did not want to embarrass the Royal Family. But he added: “These members of the Royal Family have now been embarrassed in this trial.”