Harry’s lawyer tells UK court Daily Mail complicit in unlawful acts
Written by: Michael Holden and Sam Tobin
LONDON, Jan 19 (Reuters) – Prince Harry, Elton John and five other public figures were victims of widespread phone hacking and other illegal actions by Britain’s powerful Daily Mail with the complicity of executives and senior journalists, their lawyers told a court on Monday.
The British royal family and other plaintiffs are accusing the Mail’s publisher, Associated Newspapers, of unlawful conduct that violated their privacy from 1993 to 2011 and beyond in one of the most high-profile legal cases in the United Kingdom in years.
Harry, 41, who appeared in court smiling and waving, told a witness statement that it was “disturbing to feel like my every move, thought or feeling was being tracked and watched just to make money for the Mail”.
Associated calls the allegations “preposterous smears” and says they are part of a coordinated conspiracy driven by a wealthy group’s personal hostility towards the media.HARRY’S MISSION AGAINST THE PRESS
Over nine weeks, Harry, singer John and the legal team of other claimants – John’s husband David Furnish, actors Liz Hurley and Sadie Frost, anti-racism campaigner Doreen Lawrence and former MP Simon Hughes – will argue that private detectives instructed by the Mail illegally obtained material about them.
Their lawyer, David Sherborne, said the practices included hacking voicemail messages, tapping landlines and obtaining private information through deception known as “blagging”.
“There was clear, systematic and sustained use of illegal information gathering by both the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday,” Sherborne said at the start of the hearing at London’s High Court.
Harry, who long blamed the press for his mother’s death in a 1997 car crash in Paris as her car sped away from the paparazzi, listened in court, sitting behind his lawyers along with Hurley, Frost and Hughes.
Those accused of misconduct included managing editors and senior journalists, including the current editors of the Mail on Sunday and the Sun.
Examples include the discovery of Harry’s ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy’s precise travel plans and a report about “private and intimate conversations” between Harry and his older brother, Prince William, about a description of images of their deceased mother, according to the plaintiffs’ written submissions.
Harry, whose case was based on 14 published newspaper reports, said in a witness statement quoted in his evidence that the intrusion was “horrific” for loved ones and put “huge strain” on personal relationships.
HARRY WILL GIVE EVIDENCE
Associated’s names had not previously been implicated in the phone hacking scandal that occupied the British press for two decades until the lawsuit was filed in 2022. He denies any wrongdoing and says charges should have been filed sooner.
Evidence obtained from former private detectives is stated to be unreliable. Some were convicted of crimes, and Associated said the plaintiffs’ legal team paid for some depositions.
“Associated’s claim in its books that these practices were ‘customary and widespread’ was absolutely untrue,” the publisher said in its written submission.
Judge Matthew Nicklin’s conclusions will not only jeopardize reputations but also determine legal costs running into tens of millions of dollars.
For Harry, it is the latest installment in his legal battle against British tabloids who say it is their job to exonerate the press and hold those in high places to account.
He has already sued Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) for damages, but received an apology and admission of some wrongdoing from Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper arm, which settled ahead of the trial a year ago.
The prince will testify on Thursday during the MGN trial in 2023, becoming the first British royal to take the witness stand in 130 years.
(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by David Holmes and Andrew Cawthorne)
