Hugh Grant calls for criminal investigation into owners of The Sun

HUGH Grant has called for police to open a new criminal investigation into the owners of The Sun after Prince Harry settled a legal case this week.

News Group Newspapers (NGN) agreed to pay "substantial damages" to Harry and apologised for "serious intrusion" into his life between 1996 and 2011.

The publisher admitted "incidents of unlawful activity" were carried out by private investigators working for The Sun.

It offered an apology for incidents of phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators instructed by them at the News of the World.

Actor Grant also settled a privacy claim against NGN in 2024, saying he could have faced a bill of up to £10m even if he had won.

Grant said both incidents had shown a civil case was "not the right instrument" to get to "the real truth" of what happened at the newspaper.

He said NGN had "gamed" the civil courts to silence complainants and a criminal investigation was needed.

"That's what they've done consistently over the last 10 years," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Friday.

"They've spent £1bn to make sure these things are never looked at in court… and you don't get proper judicial findings.

"I think what they're terrified of is that those findings would trigger a new criminal inquiry."

In the civil courts, claimants could end up paying the costs of their opponents if the damages award is less than they have been offered to settle – even if they win.

(Image: Ben Whitley) Grant had accused The Sun of using private investigators to tap his phone and burgle his house, and said he settled because he could not face the possible costs of proceeding to trial. NGN had denied the allegations and said the settlement was reached "without admission of liability".

The actor called on the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the Metropolitan Police to investigate. 

He also argued a new investigation was needed because people who were at the paper at the time that private investigators who carried out "unlawful activity" were instructed were still in "positions of great power".

The paper's editor during part of the period between 1996 and 2011, Rebekah Brooks, is currently the CEO of News UK.

"A lot of the foot soldiers for those newspapers have now come over to our side … to say this is awful," the actor said.

"We've been punished, we've been to prison, we've paid fines, we've lost our jobs.

"But the people who commanded all this, they're still there."

Grant also said the UK Government should launch part two of the Leveson Inquiry into press standards in light of the Duke of Sussex's case.

The 2012 inquiry into the culture, practice and ethics of the press was launched in the wake of the phone hacking scandal.