Prince Harry arrives at high court for Daily Mail owner privacy case
High Court #HighCourt
The Duke of Sussex has arrived at the high court in London for a hearing in his claim against the publisher of the Daily Mail over allegations of illegal behaviour by the outlets’ journalists.
Prince Harry’s arrival came ahead of the first court hearing in a lawsuit also brought by Doreen Lawrence, the singer Elton John and other high-profile figures against Associated Newspapers over alleged phone-tapping and other breaches of privacy.
Harry is one of seven prominent individuals who are bringing cases against the newspaper group. Others bringing legal action include Elizabeth Hurley, Sadie Frost, David Furnish, and the former Lib Dem MP Simon Hughes.
The group’s lawyers issued a statement last year alleging they have “compelling and highly distressing evidence” they have been the victims of “abhorrent criminal activity and gross breaches of privacy” by the newspaper group.
The lawyers’ allegations of illegal activity involving the publisher of the Mail, Mail on Sunday and MailOnline include:
The hiring of private investigators to secretly place listening devices inside people’s cars and homes.
The commissioning of individuals to surreptitiously listen in to, and record, people’s live, private telephone calls while they were taking place.
The payment of police officials, with allegedly corrupt links to private investigators, for sensitive inside information.
The impersonation of individuals to obtain medical information from private hospitals, clinics, and treatment centres by deception.
The accessing of bank accounts, credit histories and financial transactions through illicit means and manipulation.
Full details of the group’s claims have yet to be aired in public, after the Mail successfully delayed publication on a number of legal grounds.
The Mail strongly denies the allegations, with hearings on a number of preliminary issues due to take place this week.
Rival newspaper publishers, such as Rupert Murdoch’s News UK, have spent the last 15 years dealing with hundreds of claims of illegal activity at their newspapers, often relating to phone hacking or obtaining material illegally.
Associated Newspapers has escaped the same barrage of lawsuits and always strongly denied engaging in phone hacking at its outlets, although it has been dogged by accusations about its use of private investigators.
While Harry has brought a number of high-profile legal cases against British newspapers, the claimant that might cause more concern for the Daily Mail is Lady Lawrence, the Labour peer and mother of the murdered schoolboy Stephen Lawrence.
Her decision to start legal action against the newspaper group is particularly notable given the Daily Mail led a campaign for her son’s killers to be brought to justice. On one infamous front page, the newspaper ran the headline “Murderers” above pictures of five men they accused of killing Stephen Lawrence in a racist attack in 1993.
When she was added to the legal case, the Daily Mail’s parent company issued a statement saying they had the “greatest respect and admiration” for Lawrence but suggested she had been convinced to bring the legal proceedings by “whoever is cynically and unscrupulously orchestrating these claims”.