Prince Harry and ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy’s sleeping arrangements ‘obtained unlawfully by Daily Mail publisher’
Intimate details about Prince Harry’s relationship with ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy, including his “sleeping arrangements”, were “illegally” obtained by the Mail on Sunday, the High Court heard.
The Duke’s lawyer, David Sherborne, said on Tuesday that an article published in January 2010 contained “detailed details” about their plans as a couple and even Harry’s “preferences for where he likes to spend the night.”
Other details published in the paper included how the Duke of Sussex gave his then-on-off partner a “set of keys” to managing their long-distance relationship.
But Harry’s evidence was “absolutely solid” and Mr Sherborne insisted that only he or a close friend of Ms Davy’s could have known private information and “could not possibly betray their trust”, Mr Sherborne insisted.
Harry, Sir Elton John, his wife David Furnish, campaigner Baroness Doreen Lawrence, politician Sir Simon Hughes and actresses Sadie Frost and Liz Hurley are taking legal action against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) over alleged illegal information collection.
ANL “strongly” denies the “preposterous allegations”.
Mr Sherborne said the article by Mail on Sunday journalist Katie Nicholl detailed “intimate and specific details” about Harry’s private life.
The story said Ms Davy’s friends said Harry was regularly visited at her home in Belgravia before he left the UK for Christmas.
The court heard Ms Nicholl’s evidence showed she had obtained “minute details” in her notebooks from a man called Garth Gibbs.
Mr Sherborne said Mr Gibbs, a South African-born man who died a year after the article was published, was not “a member of the royal family” or “some kind of young aristocratic socialite”. Instead, he lived alone in semi-retirement on the Isle of Wight, with his cat named Kismul, Lord of Barra, aka Kizzy, as his only companion.
The lawyer added that it was “completely implausible that this person would have provided this level of information about the Duke of Sussex and Mrs Chelsy Davy.”
He claimed Ms Nicholl employed “familiar illegal information gathering” techniques.
Summarizing part of the Duke’s written statement, Mr Sherborne said he described in detail the “distress” and “paranoia” caused by Harry.
He continued: “But given what we’ve seen, is it surprising that he feels that way, or that he feels, as he has explained, that he has endured a sustained campaign of attacks against him for having the audacity to oppose Associated in the way he has publicly done?”
ANL said statements made to the press about Harry’s private life were “not an unusual occurrence”.
Antony White KC, the publisher’s barrister, told the court in written submissions: “The fact is that the social circles of the celebrity plaintiffs, that is, all the plaintiffs except the plaintiffs Baroness (Doreen) Lawrence and Sir Simon Hughes, were ‘leaking’ and that their friends, friends of friends or associates, were regularly providing information to the press about the private lives of the plaintiffs, in confidence for obvious reasons.”
ANL’s written statement alleges Ms Nicholl was given information by Mr Gibbs from a source in South Africa who was Ms Davy’s “good friend” and was also one of her Facebook friends.
“He would also probably have researched the story from some of his other confidential sources about the Duke of Sussex and Mrs Davy to confirm whether the story was true and to find out other details,” Mr White said.
On Tuesday, Mr White told the court that journalists at the organization had presented “a compelling account of the pattern of legitimate sourcing of articles”.
At the beginning of his opening submissions he said: “The defendant defends these claims on two primary grounds: the first on the merits and the second on the statute of limitations.
“Associated made a statement through a long line of witnesses that its journalists sourced more than 50 articles that plaintiffs alleged were the product of illegal doxxing.
“We do not claim that this account is perfect and covers every detail, and not every journalist can remember every article, but we do say that overall the articles provide a compelling account of the pattern of legitimate source acquisition.”
Zimbabwe-born Ms Davy was with Prince Harry for nearly seven years; Their relationship continued while he was in the Army and training abroad and she was at university in South Africa.
They separated in early 2009 but rekindled their relationship after both reportedly had other flings, and in May 2010 Ms Davy made a rare public appearance to watch him get his wings after completing the Army Air Forces helicopter pilot course.
They split again in about 2011 but remained friends, and he attended her wedding to the Duchess of Sussex in 2018.
