Prince Harry’s court case suffers major new blow | Royal | News

Prince Harry’s case has suffered a major blow after a private investigator claimed he never conducted a wiretap, denying a claim made by one of the plaintiffs. Baroness Lawrence, like Prince Harry, is one of seven people who are suing the publishers of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday (Associated Newspapers Limited) for allegedly illegally collecting information.

This includes phone hacking and wiretapping. But the main allegation by Baroness Lawrence, the mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, is that private investigator Jonathan Rees was paid to “secretly steal information” about her by the Daily Mail, which has denied all allegations against her.

This is something he told Channel 4 investigative program Dispatches that never happened.

The announcement comes a month before the trial, which is expected to cost more than £38 million, begins in January.

Baroness Lawrence, who claimed phone calls were wiretapped, said: “Jonathan Rees confirmed he was doing more for the Daily Mail… his aim was to secretly steal information about me and the investigations into Stephen’s murder.”

This is something Mr Rees has refused, saying he was “not involved” even though Dispatches was approached to do the work.

According to The Telegraph, When told that Baroness Lawrence’s witness statement was “based on your confirmation that you carried out the bugging operation”, Mr Rees said: “That’s right, they will have to rethink that and the legal team will have to rethink that too.”

That’s not the only blow the upcoming trial has faced so far; Another private investigator, Gavin Burrows, said the testimony of a witness who saw Prince Harry’s legal team claim Mr Burrows was involved in hacking and wiretapping a few weeks ago was “incorrect”.

Mr Burrow claimed his signature was “forged”.