Prince Harry denies claim ‘leaky social circle’ fed stories to journalists | UK news
Prince Harry told the high court that the publisher of the headlines had “an obsession” with spying on him, as he insisted to journalists at the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday that he did not have a “leaky” social circle telling stories about him.
Giving evidence at the high court against Associated Newspapers Led (ANL), the Duke of Sussex rejected the publisher’s claims that its journalists had obtained information about him from friends and acquaintances rather than illegally.
The duke, who spoke to ANL’s lead lawyer Antony White, said it was now impossible to complain about some of the stories he believed resulted from the use of illegal information collection.
He said he was prevented from making a complaint by “the institution I’m in,” referring to the royal family. “If you complain, they [the press] “From my experience, I give you twice the importance,” he said.
“My social circles were not leaky, I want to make that absolutely clear,” he said, adding that the moment he became suspicious about someone, he had to cut them off.
“When you are in a situation like this, once something special comes to light, your circle of trust and knowledge diminishes over time,” he said. “The things in these articles are not the kind of things I would talk about openly.”
Prince Harry is filing a lawsuit against ANL along with six other public figures accusing the broadcaster of using illegal techniques.
Among them is Doreen Lawrence, the mother of Stephen Lawrence, who was killed in a racist murder more than 30 years ago. Elton John and his wife David Furnish, actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost and former Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes are also part of the action.
In his written witness statement submitted to the court, Harry alleged that these techniques “included, among other criminal methods, the hacking of my voicemails, the tapping of landlines, the filing of criminal complaints, obtaining detailed phone bills, wiretapping wire connections and obtaining the private flight information of my ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy, all with the deliberate aim of publishing articles about me.”
In his statement, he accused the publisher of “running a campaign, obsessed with keeping every aspect of my life under surveillance in order to gain an advantage over his rivals and to make me paranoid beyond belief, to isolate me and possibly to drive me into drugs and drink to sell more of his newspapers.”
“I am committed to holding Associated accountable for the good of everyone,” he said in his written submission.
“I am therefore determined to pursue this claim because I believe it is in the public interest. If the defendant, who owns several national newspapers including The Daily Mail, by his own definition the most influential and popular newspaper in the UK, can evade justice without a hearing on my allegations, then what does that say about the consequences for the industry as a whole and for our great country?”
Associated Newspapers has previously denied any wrongdoing, describing the allegations as “appalling” and “inconceivable”.
White suggested to Harry that the journalists who wrote some of the 14 articles he complained about had sources in his social circle and could legitimately obtain the information.
White said former Mail on Sunday royal correspondent Katie Nicholl, who wrote several of the stories, went to the same social events and nightclubs. He claimed he had a good relationship with the Daily Mail’s royal editor, Rebecca English, and at one point befriended a third journalist on Facebook.
“I did not have a good relationship with Miss English,” the Duke said. “On the contrary.”
“For the avoidance of doubt, I am not friends with any of these journalists and never have been,” he added.
White had previously asked the court to match the payment to a private investigator with evidence that illegal means were used to secure the stories, telling the court the seven plaintiffs were “grabbing at straws in the wind and trying to tie them together.”
The publisher said the stories were “obtained entirely legitimately from information provided by members of the Duke of Sussex’s social circle, press officers and contacts of responsible journalists, including journalists, freelance journalists, photographers and previous reports.”
White said the duke’s social circle was “known and a good source for information to be leaked or disclosed to the media about what he does in his private life.”
In his statement, Harry said he learned of allegations of illegal activity by the publisher of the Daily Mail after taking legal action against the publishers of the Daily Mirror and The Sun.
The trial continues.
