Prince Harry has finished his second day of giving evidence in the High Court. The Duke of Sussex is taking legal action against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) alleging that tabloid reporters broke the law to get stories about him. He was cross-examined by the Mirror Group’s barrister Andrew Green and then was asked questions by his own lawyer, David Sherborne. Here’s what unfolded today:
• Prince Harry says the media exposure for this court case has been ‘a lot’
• The Duke of Sussex found a tracking device under then-girlfriend Chelsy Davy’s car
• Harry calls several articles ‘suspicious’ because they have been attributed to ‘pals’ or ‘Palace sources’
• The Duke said the alleged phone hacking ‘could have been happening on a daily basis’
2.35pm Prince Harry leaves the witness box
Prince Harry has finished giving evidence. He is staying in court to hear other people give evidence, although it is unclear how long he will stay for.
2.30pm Media exposure of this court case is ‘a lot’, Duke says
Asked by Sherborne how Harry felt with the media watching this week’s court case, the Duke paused and says, ‘It’s a lot.’ His voice appeared to break a little as he said it.
2.20pm Harry: Photographers ‘enormous security issue’
Referring to himself and Prince William, Harry alleges that photographers from the Ikon picture agency ‘stalked and harassed us for decades’. ‘They were an enormous security issue.’
He says his security team suspected ‘consistent unlawful activity’.
2.10pm Harry found tracking device on Chelsy Davy’s car
Harry says he once found a tracking device on Davy’s car. He alleges it was placed there by a private investigator. He says his friend Mark Dyer also found one on his car.
2.05pm Court resumes
David Sherborne starts questioning Prince Harry.
1.05pm Court breaks for lunch
Court has broken for lunch with proceedings due to begin again in roughly an hour’s time.
1pm Harry’s cross-examination ends, questions from Duke’s lawyer begin
Harry’s cross-examination by Andrew Green has now finished. Now it is the turn of Harry’s own barrister, David Sherborne, to ask the Duke questions in what is known as the examination in chief.
12:55pm Does Harry have evidence he was hacked daily?
Green asks Harry if he believes his phone was ‘consistently hacked’ over the 15 years that make up his claim against MGN, 1996 and 2011. Harry answers, ‘It could have been happening on a daily basis, I simply don’t know.’
Pressed by Green as to whether the Duke has any evidence to show this, Harry responds, ‘No, that’s part of the reason I’m here, my lord.’
12:50pm Harry sought legal advice after bumping into lawyer in France
Harry says he sought legal advice on a claim against MGN after bumping into his now-lawyer David Sherborne in France in 2018. Prior to this, Green asks, was Harry aware that he had a case against the Mirror Group? Harry responds, ‘Not at all.’
Asked by Green if Harry has ‘never been able to identify any story in an MGN newspaper which was written as a result of a message left on [his] phone?’, the Duke answers, ‘That’s a question for my legal team…but I believe phone hacking started at Mirror Group.’
12:40pm Harry: ‘evidence has been destroyed’
Responding to questions concerning an article about a rugby match Harry attended with a woman at Twickenham, the Prince repeats his claim that the article was ‘suspicious’. He adds that he has seen evidence of six payments to private investigators in relation to the story.
Pressed by Green on whose mobile phones Harry thinks were targeted for the story, he responds ‘I’m not sure because the evidence has been destroyed.’
12:30pm Who knew about Harry’s meetings with Caroline Flack?
Harry tells the court of his shock when two photographers were lying in wait for him and Caroline Flack to arrive at a dinner party in Fulham. He says that only his friends knew of the dinner plans and that he was ‘highly suspicious and convinced someone had leaked the information to the press’.
He says that, at the time, he included Flack in his suspicious, but that he now believes the information about their meetings was obtained from his or her voicemails, or those of the friend whose house they met at.
Harry reportedly looks pained as he says Flack is ‘no longer with us’.
12:10pm Suspicious photographers
The court is now back in session and Green has turned to the 27th article included in the trial. The Sunday Mirror article is about Harry dropping off Chelsy near Kensington Palace in 2007 and includes a photograph of him dropping her off.
Harry says the presence of a photographer ‘poised and waiting’ was ‘highly suspicious’
Alexander Larman writes…‘There is an undeniable sense that Harry sees this, not as a legal issue, but as a crusade, in which he is wielding the “simple sword of truth” against the “cancer of bent and twisted journalism”.’
Read the full story here.
11.50am Court takes short break
11.40am ‘Hooray Harry’ celebrating dumping by Chelsy, claims Duke
Prince Harry claims the headline of a Sunday Mirror article titled ‘Hooray Harry’s Dumped’ was ‘hurtful to say the least’. Green questions, ‘You’re not suggesting that “Hooray Harry” was a reference to celebrating that you were being dumped, are you?’ The Duke confirms he is.
Green responds, ‘The article quotes that [Chelsy] got tired of “his hooray lifestyle”…it’s not celebrating the demise of your relationship,’
11.35am Harry ‘in the land of total speculation’
Discussing an article regarding his relationship with ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy, Prince Harry says the attribution to a ‘palace source’ is suspicious because ‘I never discussed any details with the palace about my relationship with my girlfriend’. Instead, he alleges, the true source of the information was phone hacking.
Green says that we are in the ‘land of total speculation about where this information might have come from’. Harry says he disagrees.
(Credit: Getty images)
11.10am Does Harry want to be phone hacked?
Green asks Prince Harry if he would be disappointed if the court finds that he was never hacked by Mirror Group journalists. The Duke says he isn’t sure if he would be ‘relieved or disappointed’ and ‘I would feel some injustice if it wasn’t accepted.’
The lawyer then asks, ‘So you want to have been phone hacked?’ to which Harry responds, ‘Nobody wants to be phone hacked, my lord.’
11.05am Cross-examination turns to News of the World phone hacking arrests
Green asks Prince Harry about the conviction of two News of the World journalists arrested for hacking phones related to royal aides. Harry says that despite the ‘enormous risk’ in targeting the Royal Family Green suggests their case would have shown, the ‘risk was worth the reward’ for publishers.
11am Distressing stories
Harry says that going through the knee injury story with his legal team was ‘distressing’. In response to a question from Green as to whether he remembered the article at the time, Harry says he doesn’t ‘remember seeing’ most of the articles at the time of publication. ‘Most of them were equally distressing then and more distressing today going through this process,’ he said.
10.45am What’s in the public interest?
Harry is challenged by Green to define what makes a story ‘in the public interest’ and therefore legitimate. ‘What would be a public interest story about you?’ Green asks. ‘I’m not entirely sure, other than speculating,’ Harry responds. The Duke suggests a life-threatening injury might count.
10.30am The Duke of Sussex is back in the witness box
The Mirror Group’s barrister Andrew Green KC picks up Prince Harry’s cross-examination where he left off yesterday. The Duke is being questioned on an article relating to his time at Sandhurst that alleged he was being let off training due to a knee injury.
He said he ‘was not going around freely discussing any medical issues or injuries that I had’. Green points out the article included a quote from Harry himself.
10am Prince Harry has arrived in court
The Duke of Sussex has arrived for a second day of evidence in his case against MGN. Prince Harry turned up in a Land Rover flanked by security guards.
9.30am What unfolded on Harry’s first day in court
The Duke of Sussex had a tough day, fielding questions from MGN’s barrister Andrew Green KC. Green, described as a ‘beast in court’ by Legal 500, skilfully unpicked Harry’s claim that articles about him were obtained using unlawful methods, wrote Alexander Larman on Coffee House: ‘Green’s line of questioning represents quite the most combative interrogation that the Duke of Sussex has faced in several years, possibly ever.’
You can read Alexander Larman’s full piece here.
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