Liz Hurley ‘crushed’ by alleged home phone tapping, court told

In her lawsuit against the Daily Mail’s publisher, Elizabeth Hurley said she felt “crushed” by the media’s invasion of her privacy.

In his witness statement, Hurley claims he tapped the Mail’s landlines and placed “hidden microphones in the windows of my house” to get news.

The actress broke down in tears as she gave evidence in London’s Royal Court of Justice on Thursday in her case against Mail and Mail publisher Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL).

He is one of seven high-profile plaintiffs accusing ANL of “serious invasions of privacy” over a 20-year period. The publisher denied wrongdoing.

Hurley’s claim relates to 15 articles It was published between 2002 and 2011 and says ANL “intentionally exploited my stolen information using its arsenal of illegal means”. Five of them involve his son Damian and his late father, filmmaker Steve Bing.

She claims Mail also stole her medical information while she was pregnant with Damian, whom she calls “the center of my world”.

He also said 10 more articles were requested “written by journalists who commissioned other private detectives to do similar unlawful things.”

When she was shown some articles about her claim, she burst into tears in court and wiped her eyes and nose with a tissue.

Through tears, she said reading private investigator Gavin Burrows’ statement was “deeply hurtful”. Hurley admitted that this meant he was “listening and listening to all my conversations.”

Hurley told the court on Thursday that he learned of Burrows’ statement just before Christmas 2020. Hurley denied that he had done it and claimed that the signature on the document was incorrect.

In his witness statement, Hurley said he was “devastated” to discover the alleged phone tapping.

“In neither of my two battles with other newspapers have I encountered this brutal invasion of privacy,” he said.

“This wasn’t just phone hacking… it was a breach on a completely different, shameful and enraging scale.”

He became emotional as he completed his statement and said he found going to court “traumatic”.

“With all due respect, I don’t want to be here,” he told his lawyer, adding that discussing past events was “too painful.”

Asked on the witness stand why he had not taken legal action against the publisher sooner, Hurley said that as far as he remembered “the complaints were defamatory” and that the articles were “substantially true”.

“I believe this is because people are listening to me talk,” he told the court.

ANL’s Antony White KC told him there had been “leaks in your camp” leading to stories, and he admitted that he had initially thought about it.

But Hurley insisted that none of his close friends would speak to the press without his permission.

The lawyer, who received criticism about a story published in Hello Magazine in 2001, stated that it was reported that two of his friends were talking about him.

“They would never say anything thoughtless about me,” he replied.

Another claimant, the Duke of Sussex, was seen entering court after a spokesman said he would be there “to support and show solidarity”.

Joining Hurley and Prince Harry in the lawsuit against ANL are:

• Other actress Sadie Frost
• Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish
• Sir Simon Hughes, former Liberal Democrat MP
• Baroness Doreen Lawrence, campaigner whose son Stephen Lawrence was killed in a racist attack in south London in 1993

The plaintiffs accused ANL of “clearly, systematically and consistently illegal information gathering”, including private detectives and bullshitters, for stories between 1993 and “beyond” 2018.

ANL has previously denied allegations of illegal collection of information.

White, who represented the broadcaster, said the plaintiffs were “indecisive” and that the claims were brought too late.

Privacy lawsuits generally must be filed within six years of the alleged breach, unless victims can show that they cannot sue at that time.

White argued that the reporters behind the stories offered “a compelling account of the articles’ pattern of legitimate sourcing” and said that in some cases friends and social circles of celebrities contributed sources to Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday journalists.

She claimed in court on Wednesday that she knew Prince Harry’s social circle was “leaky”, to which the prince responded in evidence: “My social circles were not leaky, I want to make that absolutely clear.”

Prince Harry was visibly emotional in the witness box as he said the broadcaster’s wife, the Duchess of Sussex, had made his life “an absolute misery”.

The prince’s voice broke as he said the court battle had been a “terrible experience” for his family and that all he wanted was “an apology and some responsibility”.

The trial is ongoing and is expected to last nine weeks. This is a civil case, so there is no jury and the judge, Mr Justice Nicklin, will decide the case on his own.