Prince Harry's privacy case against Associated Newspapers begins

The Duke of Sussex has arrived at the High Court in London to begin a ten-week phone hacking legal battle against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), the publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday. Prince Harry is part of a high-profile group of claimants, including Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Sir Elton John, Elizabeth Hurley, and Sadie Frost. They allege the publisher engaged in widespread unlawful information gathering between 1993 and 2018.

The claimants accuse the company of hiring private investigators to install listening devices in cars, intercepting live phone calls, and obtaining private medical records. Associated Newspapers has denied all allegations, describing them as preposterous smears. 

On the opening day of the High Court trial, lawyers for Prince Harry and six other high-profile claimants accused ANL of systematic and sustained unlawful information gathering. Barrister David Sherborne alleged that journalists and senior executives across every significant editorial desk commissioned illegally obtained information over two decades. The claimants argue that ANL previously provided false assurances regarding its practices, including during the Leveson inquiry.

Prince Harry provided a witness statement describing the intrusion as terrifying, noting it caused extreme paranoia and strained his personal relationships. The court heard that the publisher allegedly utilised fourteen private investigators to facilitate these activities. The claimants also highlighted the mass destruction of emails prior to 2004 as suspicious, although, the publisher attributed this to standard company policy. 

In its written statement, ANL denied the allegations, calling them simply untrue and said that the legal action is a coordinated strategy using "recruited and corralled" claimants.

As the trial continued into its second day, the legal team opening the case for the defence strenuously denied any wrongdoing, describing the claims as "preposterous" and that the case was "threadbare". Instead, Anthony White KC said journalists for the publisher provided a "compelling account of a pattern of legitimate sourcing of articles," to which the defence will show throughout the trial. However, there was an acknowledgement of past failings as he stated: "We don't pretend that that account is perfect and covers every detail, and not every journalist can remember every article, but we do say that, overall, it provides a compelling account of a pattern of legitimate sourcing of articles."

To counter the allegations of hiring private investigators, White remarked that these were "examples of clutching at straws in the wind and seeking to bind them together in a way that has no proper analytical foundation".

On Wednesday, Prince Harry became emotional as he finished an intense day of evidence, telling the court that his wife's life had been made an "absolute misery". In testimony lasting about 2 hours, the Duke of Sussex was cross-examined by ANL's lawyer and appeared visibly frustrated at times by the line of questioning. In particular, he told the court that it was "disgusting" that he should have no right to privacy and that it was "fundamentally wrong to put us through this again when all we wanted was an apology and accountability". 

On Thursday, the court heard from Elizabeth Hurley who said she felt  "crushed" by the invasion of her privacy by the press and warned "everyone's privacy is being invaded in this terrible way." In giving evidence to the court, Hurly, who was visibly upset at times, said ANL tapped her phone and placed "surreptitious mics on my home windows." Her claim relates to 15 articles, which she alleges ANL "wilfully exploited my stolen information using its arsenal of illegal means". Five of those are about her son Damian and his father. 

As the case enters its second week, actor Sadie Frost told the court she had become sick with humiliation and that there had been a "price on my head."

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