Awaited for a resounding trial against a British tabloid, Prince Harry made a false leap to the High Court in London on Monday in what was to be the first appearance of a member of the royal family at the helm of a court in addition to ‘a century.
Exiled to California with his wife Meghan, 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 British newspapers.
Holding the tabloid press responsible for the death of his mother Diana in a car accident in Paris in 1997 while she was being chased by paparazzi, Harry also cited the media’s behavior towards his wife among the factors that led him to leave the United Kingdom and withdraw from the British monarchy.
In the ongoing trial, which opened last month at the High Court in London, Harry accuses the Daily Mirror publisher of using unlawful means to gather information, including hacking into voicemails , between 1996 and 2010.
While the prince was expected on Monday for his testimony, the plaintiff’s lawyer, David Sherborne, announced that he had flown only Sunday evening to Los Angeles because he was celebrating the second birthday of his daughter Lilibet. He will therefore only be present in court on Tuesday, an announcement which Judge Timothy Fancourt said he was “a little surprised”, suggesting tense exchanges with Harry when he appears.
It will then be the first appearance of a member of the royal family at the helm since that of the future Edward VII in 1890 for a libel trial.
In 2002, Princess Anne, Harry’s aunt, was fined after a bite from her bull terrier inflicted on two children in Windsor Park. But having pleaded guilty, she had not had to testify.
Thirty-three contentious articles were retained by the judge in the procedure out of 147 referred to by Harry.
Laying out the prince’s grievances, his lawyer said the media group used the services of “at least 30 private investigators”.
“The articles on the private life of the prince were selling”, underlined David Sherborne, citing the exclusivity in One on the mononucleosis of prince Harry when he was small, an argument with his brother William or a relationship with a former girlfriend.
The Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) – which in addition to the Daily Mirror publishes its Sunday and people editions – admitted at the start of the trial in its written submissions “some evidence” of illegal news gathering.
MGN issued an “unreserved” apology and promised that this situation would “never happen again”. The publisher’s lawyer, Andrew Green, on the other hand, rejected the accusations of interception of voice messages and swept aside certain accusations, highlighting the age of the facts.
Prince Harry’s last appearance in the UK dates back to his whirlwind trip to his father’s coronation on May 6. A visit that came after weeks of speculation in the wake of the storm sparked in January by the publication of his memoirs in which he recounts, among other things, the breakdown of his relationship with his father and brother William, as well as his drug use. during his turbulent youth.
At the end of March, Harry caused a stir by appearing in the High Court – but in public – for a preliminary hearing against ANL, the publisher of the Daily Mail, accused of the same methods by a series of personalities among which the singer Elton John.
Two weeks ago, Prince Harry lost the lawsuit he filed for police protection when he travels to the UK.
Sign of the intensity of the tension between Harry and the press, the spokesman for Harry and Meghan claimed last month that the couple had been “chased” in New York by “very aggressive paparazzi”. An episode that revived the memory of Diana’s death.
05/06/2023 17:15:01 – London (AFP) – © 2023 AFP