In this Daily Mail opinion column, commentator Sarah Vine responds to a court ruling that dismissed a long-running legal action brought by Prince Harry and other claimants against the newspaper's publisher. Vine reports that after a four-year campaign, a judge found no proof of wrongdoing and ruled entirely in the Daily Mail's favour. She uses the verdict to defend the paper's record and to launch a sustained personal criticism of Prince Harry, suggesting he may have been influenced by others in pursuing the case, much as she claims his mother, Princess Diana, was manipulated by journalist Martin Bashir.

Vine highlights that among those who criticised the ruling was the mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, whose killers the Mail helped bring to justice with its 1997 front page under editor Paul Dacre. Both Harry and Lawrence's mother reportedly called the judgment "a whitewash" offering "neither justice nor accountability". Vine characterises Harry as privileged, self-pitying and inconsiderate of others, citing passages from his memoir Spare, and argues he misunderstands the law — noting his complaint that the ruling contradicts earlier hacking cases against News Group and Mirror Group Newspapers, which she says are separate organisations judged on their own facts.