Prince Harry makes surprise appearance at court battle against Daily Mail

Britain’s Prince Harry made a surprise appearance at London’s High Court on Monday when he and six other high-profile figures launched a lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mail newspaper over years of alleged wiretapping and breach of privacy.

Harry, son of King Charles III, has brought a lawsuit against Associated Newspapers, as well as singer Elton John and his husband and Canadian filmmaker David Furnish, and actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost.

Prince, who had flown in from his home in California, sat just a few feet away from a large group of reporters. Frost was also on the court. None of the defendants were asked to speak during the four-day preliminary hearing.

He said he was the victim of “numerous unlawful acts” carried out by the Associated Newspapers headlines Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, the lawyer said in extracts of submissions made to the court.

These include hacking mobile phone messages, bugging phones, obtaining personal information such as medical records by lying or “blagging,” using private investigators to unlawfully obtain information, and “even commissioning breaking and entering into private property,” according to the extract.

The alleged activity lasted from 1993 to 2011, “and even continued until 2018,” the lawyer said.

The publisher vehemently denies the allegations

Associated Newspapers has said it “absolutely and unequivocally” denies the allegations. It sought to have the case dismissed.

In court submissions, it said the claims were based on inference rather than evidence, and that prosecutors had provided little or no evidence of unauthorized information gathering by journalists.

Prosecutors argue the evidence is strong and should be determined in court.

Another plaintiff in the case is Doreen Lawrence, the mother of black teenager Stephen Lawrence, who was killed in a racist attack in 1993. She was later made a baroness for her campaign work.

The Mail has championed bringing her son’s killers to justice and said the allegations against her were “an appalling and baseless smear.”

In a statement last October, a spokesman for Associated Newspapers said the publisher had “the most respect and admiration” for Lawrence and was sad that he had been persuaded to join the action by “who cynically and unscrupulously orchestrated these claims.”

Harry, Meghan take press outlet

Prince Harry has been involved in a libel case against the Mail on Sunday, over an article about security arrangements, which the newspaper also contested.

Last year, Harry won damages from the same paper after another defamation suit. His wife, Meghan, also won a privacy case against the publisher in 2021 for printing a letter written to her estranged father.

Meanwhile, Harry is expected to appear in court in May to give evidence in a libel trial against the Daily Mirror newspaper over allegations of phone hacking, which the paper is also contesting.

Outrage over journalists who hacked voicemail messages led to the closure of Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World tabloid in 2011, the jailing of a former editor and a lengthy public inquiry into press standards.

Media intrusion is one of the reasons Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, announced they are stepping down from royal duties and moving to California to make a new life and career.

He attacked the press in a new six-part Netflix documentary series and in Harry’s memoir sparewhile accusing other royals of collaborating with newspapers on some fake stories.

The fallout from the statement, on which Buckingham Palace has yet to comment, continues. Harry does not expect to see his younger brother, William, while he is in London as the heir to the throne is away on school holidays.