Has Harry's war with the press finally run out of road?

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock Image caption, Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, is currently visiting the UK By Tom Symonds News correspondent Published 5 minutes ago These are the dying days of what has become known as the "hacking scandal". The latest judge to grapple with sprawling allegations of wrongdoing at newspapers has handed down a devastating verdict on the evidence presented by the Duke of Sussex and his co-claimants. Judge Mr Justice Nicklin found the group had failed to prove the allegations of unlawful information gathering they made against Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday. The publisher's defence that there was no wrongdoing was vindicated. Dozens of journalists have been believed over their accusers. They include veteran Daily Mail crime correspondent, Stephen Wright, who told the court he was "devastated" by the allegation he targeted Baroness Doreen Lawrence with surveillance worthy of a police inquiry. In a joint statement released shortly after the ruling, Prince Harry and Baroness Lawrence called the decision a "whitewash". The prince's lawyers have not yet mentioned an appeal. A long battle Prince Harry has been part of the saga right from the start. His was among the royal phones that police discovered had been hacked by the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire way back in 2007, resulting in Mulcaire's conviction, and that of the News of the World Royal Correspondent Clive Goodman. Image source, Reuters Image caption, Prince Harry pictured in 2007 - the year police discovered his phone had been hacked by a private investigator That led to a 2009 Guardian newspaper investigation into whether other phones had been hacked. The paper said that many had, including a private investigator hacking into a phone belonging to the murdered teenager Milly Dowler, for a News of the World story. The News of the World was shut down. Its senior journalists and editor Andy Coulson were convicted in a criminal trial in 2014. After that, lawyers launched wave upon wave of civil claims against News Group (The News of the World and the Sun) and Mirror Group Newspapers (the Daily and Sunday Mirror). Settling out of court cost the newspapers hundreds of millions of pounds - and endless apologies. It is clear by now that some newspapers had used unlawful information gathering techniques, or commissioned them, on an industrial scale. Well-known people and their less well-known friends and relatives were subject to weekly breaches of privacy. Prince Harry had been advised by the Palace not to get involved. He stayed out of it until he met David Sherborne, the sharp-suited and dogged barrister who led his claims against the three big publishers. The prince changed his strategy and went to court, giving evidence himself, sometimes tearful, always angry, in the witness box. His celebrity status kept the scandal in the headlines more than a decade after it had begun. He was joined by several other high-profile na