Prince Harry arrived on the morning of June 6 at the High Court in London to give evidence against the DailyMirror, charged with hacking into voicemail. 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 DailyMirror gives considerable media weight to his fight 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 to himself “a little surprised”.
Unlawful processes
In the ongoing trial, which opened last month, Harry accuses the publisher of the DailyMirror to have resorted to unlawful means “on an industrial scale” to gather information, including by hacking telephone messages, 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 used the services of“at least 30 private detectives”.
Harry was the victim of illegal information gathering “since his childhood at school” into adulthood, his lawyer denounced on Monday, adding that “nothing was sacrosanct or off limits”.
“No aspect of the life of the young prince was protected” intrusions from the press, said the lawyer citing in particular his romantic relationships and an argument with his brother William.
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At the start of the trial, the group Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) – which in addition to the daily DailyMirror published on Sunday Mirror and the Sunday People – apologized “without reservations”grateful “some evidence” unlawful collection of information. 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 said.
Britain’s tabloids long resorted to hacks until a scandal broke when the daily newspaper hacked into a teenage girl’s phone News of the World.
Tensions between Harry and the press
Prince Harry’s last appearance in the UK dates back to his whirlwind trip for 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 the surprise by appearing in the High Court – but in the public – on the occasion of a preliminary hearing against ANL, the publisher of the DailyMailaccused of the same methods by several personalities, including singer Elton John.
In a sign of the intensity of the tension between Harry and the press, Harry and Meghan’s spokesperson claimed last month that the couple had been “hunted” in New York by “very aggressive paparazzi”.