Prince Harry vs. the Daily Mail: Royal takes on tabloid publisher over unlawful information gathering

London
 — 

Prince Harry arrived at London’s High Court on Monday as he takes on the publisher of the Daily Mail over phone hacking, tapping and a slew of alleged unlawful information gathering practices dating back years.

The Duke of Sussex and six other household names in Britain sued Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) in October 2022. Years later, the case has finally gone to trial with Harry, 41, expected to give evidence on Thursday.

The showdown is the third major legal battle the duke has embarked upon against the British tabloid press in recent years.

Here’s a reminder of the case and how we got here.

The group of plaintiffs have accused ANL, which publishes titles including the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, of engaging in various types of criminal activity to obtain information about individuals in the group between 1993 to 2011.

The group claims the illegal information gathering practices involved the alleged hiring of private investigators to plant listening devices in homes and cars and record private calls. The publisher has also denied allegations that it paid corrupt police officials for sensitive information, engaged in impersonation and deception to obtain medical records, and accessed bank accounts and financial transactions through “illicit means and manipulation.”

ANL has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, describing the accusations as “lurid” and “simply preposterous.”

The stakes are high for both sides with reputations on the line and mounting legal costs estimated to be around £40 million ($53.5 million).

David Sherborne, representing the group of claimants, began his opening statement on Monday saying that, during the trial, he’ll show that “there was clear, systematic and sustained use of unlawful news gathering at both the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday.”

He said ANL’s denials of wrongdoing “were not true” and they “knew they had skeletons in their closet.”

In written submissions to the court, Sherborne said: “There is compelling evidence (despite limitations due to the widespread loss of relevant documents) of Associated’s unlawful information gathering activities (and unlawful articles which were published as a result).”

He continued: “There can be little doubt that journalists and executives across the Mail titles engaged in or were complicit in the culture of unlawful information gathering that wrecked the lives of so many.”

Antony White KC said in written submissions for ANL that “the claims against Associated have no such foundation.”

He added that the group “have failed to establish that the most serious categories of alleged unlawful information gathering (UIG) – phone hacking and phone tapping – took place at Associated at all, and their allegation of burglary to order was struck out by the court.

“The allegation that these practices were ‘habitual and widespread’ at Associated’s titles were simply untrue,” he continued. White also reiterated that the claims were brought too late.

The challenge from King Charles’ younger son is a joint endeavor with six other notable individuals, including Elton John and his husband, David Furnish, and actress Elizabeth Hurley.

Over the next nine weeks, several members of the group of claimants – which also include campaigner Doreen Lawrence, actress Sadie Frost and former politician Simon Hughes – are expected to give evidence.

Harry is expected to provide his testimony on Thursday, according to a draft trial timetable. It will be the second time he has appeared in the witness box. He previously became the first senior British royal to give evidence on a witness stand in more than 130 years in a different lawsuit in 2023.

He’s not expected to make any other formal public appearances.

In Sherborne’s written submissions, the barrister said that the duke’s claims are based on 14 articles authored between 2001 and 2013, primarily written by two journalists, which caused the royal “great distress” and had “no meritorious public interest.”

Sherborne continued in the submission: “It is evident from the articles and the evidence of the Duke of Sussex that the targeting of him has had a profoundly distressing effect.”

The duke’s legal team went on to quote him saying it was “‘disturbing to feel that my every move, thought or feeling was being tracked and monitored just for the Mail to make money out of it,’ ‘intrusion (that) was terrifying’ for loved ones, creating a ‘massive strain’ on personal relationships while invidiously ‘creating distrust and suspicion’ and ‘driving me paranoid beyond belief, isolating me.”

Prince Harry sat towards the back of the packed courtroom, appearing to be in good spirits and exchanging smiles with a member of his legal team. Hurley and her son, Damian, and Frost and Hughes were also present.

Specific to the duke’s allegations, ANL’s written submissions said it “strongly denies” any voicemail interception or other nefarious information collection and that his social circle “was known to be a good source of leaks or disclosure of information to the media about what he got up to in his private life.”

Yes, it would be fair to say that Harry is known to have a challenging relationship with Britain’s tabloid press and has launched legal action against some of the country’s biggest media groups over the years.

Harry said the “toxic” British press was one of the reasons behind his decision with wife, Meghan, to step back from royal duties and move to the US.

Damian Tambini, an expert in media and communications regulation and policy at the London School of Economics, said the fact that the duke has repeatedly traveled to London to pursue the case shows his commitment to changing the industry’s practices.

“It’s clearly a priority for personal reasons. We might speculate that this goes all the way back to the way his mother was treated by the newspapers in the UK,” he told Reuters. “He seems to be motivated by a lot more than money, and he’s shown that he’s not so interested in simply being compensated for his losses … He’s actually trying to, along with many of the other complainants, effect change in the newspapers.”

In previous showdowns against the tabloid press, Harry also successfully launched legal challenges against Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN) and Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), after which he received apologies, admission of wrongdoing and damages.

However, ANL has not been plagued by the phone-hacking scandal that has loomed over British media for more than a decade.

Accusations that journalists were routinely hacking into the phones of politicians, celebrities and other high-profile individuals rocked the country in 2011. The scandal forced the closure of Britain’s then-top-selling paper, News of the World, and led to a wide-ranging public inquiry into press standards.

“Until now, relative to other newspapers in the market, it (The Daily Mail) has escaped broadly the worst of the censure for phone hacking, invading privacy and broadly breaching media ethics and the law. But this trial, driven by some very determined complainants, could potentially breach the dam,” Tambini said.

Not all of the duke’s cases have focused on press intrusion. Last year, Harry lost a challenge against the UK Home Office over the removal of his taxpayer-funded security arrangements after he stepped down from royal duties. However, the government has since launched a fresh review of the duke’s access to security when visiting the country, according to multiple British media outlets.

When was Harry’s last trip to the UK, and will he meet King Charles?

Harry was back in Britain in the fall when he reunited with his father, King Charles, for the first time in 19 months, sharing afternoon tea at Clarence House. The duke described his father as “great” as he later attended a reception for his Invictus Games Foundation. The pair are now reportedly in regular contact.

Charles is expected to be in Scotland where he traditionally stays following Christmas as the trial in London gets underway at the start of this week. It has been reported by the Telegraph that the King did not want to be linked to any court proceedings and was keeping his distance during this visit.

Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales’s diary will also see them head to Scotland on Tuesday for planned engagements with the Team GB and Paralympics GB curling squads ahead of the Winter and Paralympic Games in the coming months.