Prince Harry arrived at the High Court in London on the morning of June 6 to give evidence against the Daily Mirror, accused of hacking into voicemails. It is the first appearance of a member of the royal family on the stand since that of the future King Edward VII in 1891 for a libel trial.
Exiled to California with his wife Meghan Markle, the youngest son of King Charles III, in trouble with the rest of the British royal family, has initiated a series of legal proceedings against several British newspapers.
His presence before the High Court in London for the lawsuit brought against the publishing company of the Daily Mirror gives considerable media weight to his fight launched against the tabloid press. He considers the latter responsible for the death of his mother Diana, chased by paparazzi in Paris in August 1997 and also accuses him of harassment towards Meghan.
The prince had been summoned as early as Monday, but he did not show up on the grounds that his daughter Lilibet’s second birthday on Sunday did not allow him to catch the plane in time from Los Angeles. Judge Timothy Fancourt made no secret of his annoyance on Monday, saying he was “a little surprised.”
Unlawful processes
In the ongoing trial, which began last month, Harry accuses the Daily Mirror publisher of using illicit ‘industrial scale’ methods to gather information, including hacking into messengers telephone calls, between 1996 and 2011. Thirty-three contentious articles were retained by the judge in the procedure among the 147 referred to by Harry.
Outlining the prince’s grievances, his lawyer, David Sherborne, claimed the media group employed the services of “at least 30 private investigators”.
Harry was a victim of illegal information harvesting “from childhood at school” through adulthood, his attorney said Monday, adding that “nothing was sacrosanct or off limits”.
“No aspect of the young prince’s life was protected” from press intrusions, the lawyer said, citing his romantic relationships and an argument with his brother William.
In court, Prince Harry denounced the intrusion of the press into his life and claimed that “every article” about him had caused him pain. He added that he suffered from “the invasion of the press for most of his life”.
“Each of us is assigned a specific role by the press”
“In my experience as a member of the royal family, each of us is given a specific role by the tabloid press,” he said. Then the prince listed: “You are either the playboy prince or the failure (…) or in my case the cheater, the underage drinker, the irresponsible drug addict and the list goes on and on.”
“Looking back on it today, such behavior on their part is utterly despicable,” he added.
“How much more blood will stain their fingers before someone stops this madness?” asked Harry in his witness statement, read out in court, where he also denounces the links between the press and the government, both “at their lowest”.
At the start of the trial, the Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) – which in addition to the Daily Mirror publishes the Sunday Mirror and the Sunday People – issued an “unqualified” apology, acknowledging “some evidence” of illegal newsgathering. The publisher’s lawyer, Andrew Green, on the other hand, rejected the accusations of interception of voice messages and highlights the age of the facts. “There is simply no evidence to conclude that the Duke of Sussex was hacked,” he claimed.
“On learning of the extent of illegal activities carried out by (…) MGN towards me, I am somewhat relieved to know that my paranoia towards my friends and family was in fact misplaced,” Harry acknowledged.
British tabloids have long resorted to hacks until a scandal broke when the News of the World newspaper hacked into a teenage girl’s phone.
Tensions between Harry and the press
Prince Harry’s last appearance in the UK dates back to his whirlwind trip to his father’s coronation on May 6. He stayed away from his father, King Charles III and his brother William, heir to the crown, whom he crushed in his memoirs published in January.
At the end of March, Harry had created a surprise by appearing at the High Court – but in the public – on the occasion of a preliminary hearing against ANL, the publisher of the Daily Mail, accused of the same methods by several personalities, including the singer Elton John.
In a sign of the heightened tension between Harry and the press, Harry and Meghan’s spokesperson claimed last month that the couple had been “chased” in New York by “very aggressive paparazzi”.
