The Duke of Sussex has unexpectedly appeared at the High Court as legal proceedings begin in a privacy case.
Prince Harry is one of those suing Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail, over alleged phone-tapping and other breaches of privacy.
The duke was seen at the High Court on Monday morning, while singer Sir Elton John, who is also involved in the legal proceedings, arrived at lunchtime.
The publisher has described the allegations as “preposterous smears”.
The duke, Sir Elton and actresses Sadie Frost and Liz Hurley are among the individuals who allege unlawful information gathering by the company, which also publishes the Mail on Sunday.
A four-day preliminary High Court hearing in London, which started on Monday, will consider legal arguments and a judge will decide whether the case will go any further. Associated Newspapers (ANL) is bidding to end the claims without trial.
Prince Harry’s appearance will be seen by many as a sign of his strength of feeling over his privacy and determination regarding the legal action.
Others taking part in the legal action include Sir Elton’s husband David Furnish, and Baroness Doreen Lawrence, the mother of Stephen Lawrence, who was murdered in a racist attack in 1993.
The group launched the legal action last year after becoming aware of “compelling and highly distressing evidence that they have been the victims of abhorrent criminal activity and gross breaches of privacy” by ANL, according to a statement by law firm Hamlins released in October 2022.
Court proceedings began with a bid by ANL’s lawyers to have certain reporting restrictions imposed in the case.
ANL’s lawyer Adrian Beltrami said in written submissions that the legal actions have been brought too late and are “stale”.
David Sherborne, the lawyer for the group of prominent individuals, said in written submissions: “The claimants each claim that in different ways they were the victim of numerous unlawful acts carried out by the defendant, or by those acting on the instructions of its newspapers, the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday.”
Mr Sherborne said the alleged unlawful activity included “illegally intercepting voicemail messages, listening into live landline calls, obtaining private information, such as itemised phone bills or medical records, by deception or ‘blagging’, using private investigators to commit these unlawful information gathering acts on their behalf and even commissioning the breaking and entry into private property”.
He added: “They range through a period from 1993 to 2011, even continuing beyond until 2018.”
Mr Sherborne successfully represented Coleen Rooney at last year’s so-called Wagatha Christie trial.
The Duke of Sussex sat towards the back of the courtroom, occasionally taking notes in a small black notebook as legal arguments were made.
Ms Frost sat two seats away from him. Baroness Doreen Lawrence also attended the first day of the hearing.
The High Court was also told Sir Elton and Mr Furnish’s landline at their home in Windsor was tapped by a private investigator on the instructions of Associated Newspapers Limited.
Documents filed on the couple’s behalf, made available to the media on Monday, said that as well as having their landline tapped, Sir Elton’s personal assistant and the couple’s gardener were also targeted.
Mr Sherborne said in the written submission: “The claimants are outraged that Associated engaged in these unlawful and illicit acts in order to publish unlawful articles about them.
“They are also mortified to consider all their conversations, some of which were very personal indeed, were tapped, taped, packaged and consumed as a commercial product for journalists and unknown others to pick over, regardless of whether or not they were published.
“The hurt remains the same, knowing that their lives have been treated as a commodity and their precious, priceless moments of privacy degraded in this way.”
Mr Sherborne continued: “In particular, they consider their private home a sacred space.
“To learn now that this was ruthlessly invaded, their home so violated, and their family and loved ones targeted, all through unlawful acts designed to steal and exploit their information, is unforgivable to them.”
The High Court heard Sir Elton and his husband Mr Furnish had not seen a copy of their first child’s birth certificate before it was unlawfully obtained by ANL.
Mr Sherborne told the court: “The claimants have found it particularly disturbing to understand the deliberate tactics deployed by Associated to bypass the confidentiality and ethical protections afforded to medical information.
“They were appalled by the unlawful articles published about the first claimant that were sourced this way.
“Worse still was Associated’s unlawful obtaining of their first child’s birth certificate, before they had even seen a copy themselves.
“They were heartbroken by the derogatory headline that Associated attached to it, clearly calculated to profit and generate public sensation about an event that they had so carefully guarded to keep precious.
“The fact that these unlawful articles, which carry so much upset, were founded through unlawful acts that were all the time deliberately concealed from them has enraged them.”
Mr Sherborne also told the court a private investigator acting on behalf of ANL hacked Hurley’s phone, placed a “sticky window mini-microphone” outside her home and bugged ex-boyfriend Hugh Grant’s car to unlawfully obtain information about her finances, travel plans and medicals during her pregnancy.
Baroness Doreen Lawrence’s bank accounts were monitored to check whether she was receiving any money from other newspapers during the Daily Mail’s Justice for Stephen Lawrence Campaign, Mr Sherborne alleged.
In written submissions for ANL, lawyers for the publisher quoted from documents filed on Harry’s behalf.
The Duke of Sussex had “suspicion and paranoia” caused due to the publication of articles by Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) using unlawfully gathered information, the High Court was told.
Adrian Beltrami KC, for ANL, said the duke’s case was that “suspicion and paranoia was caused by Associated’s publication of the unlawful articles”.
“Friends were lost or cut off as a result and everyone became a ‘suspect’, since he was misled by the way that the articles were written into believing that those close to him were the source of this information being provided to Associated’s newspapers.”
The barrister continued: “The duke’s pre-action letter also stated that at the time, he had become paranoid and suspicious by ‘unexplained disclosures of private information in your (ANL’s) publications’.”
Mr Beltrami added: “He stated that ‘the repeated, wrongful disclosures… had a serious and profound effect upon (him) at the time of their publication’ and that he had ‘painful memories… regarding the extent to which ANL publicised private and sensitive information relating to his private and family life’.”
In a statement released in October, the newspaper group said: “We utterly and unambiguously refute these preposterous smears which appear to be nothing more than a pre-planned and orchestrated attempt to drag the Mail titles into the phone hacking scandal concerning articles up to 30 years old.
“These unsubstantiated and highly defamatory claims – based on no credible evidence – appear to be simply a fishing expedition by claimants and their lawyers, some of whom have already pursued cases elsewhere.”
The duke’s appearance on Monday is believed to be the first time he has been back in the UK since the late Queen’s funeral in September.
His surprise return comes nearly three months after he publicised his troubled relationship with his father the King and brother the Prince of Wales in his controversial autobiography Spare.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex also released a Netflix documentary in December, titled Harry & Meghan.
The King was due to be away on Monday on the first official state visit of his reign, but the trip to France was cancelled due to rioting over pension reforms.
He is due to leave for a state visit to Germany on Wednesday morning. Buckingham Palace said he was not in Windsor or London on Monday.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been asked to vacate their UK home, Frogmore Cottage on the Windsor estate, in a move sanctioned by the King.
The duke is also taking legal action against the Home Office over security arrangements when he is in the UK, raising questions about his own security provisions during this visit.
Source – BBC News
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