Prince Harry has made his way to the High Court in London, marking the beginning of his high-profile privacy trial.
The Duke of Sussex is set to be the first to take the stand in a 10-week legal battle against Associated Newspapers, the company behind the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday.
Harry, alongside Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Sir Elton John, and four others, is taking legal action against the newspaper group. They accuse the publisher of engaging in illegal activities, including phone hacking, intercepting landline calls, and deceitfully obtaining personal information.
When the lawsuit was filed in 2022, the claimants also accused the group of orchestrating burglaries or breaking into private properties to gather confidential information.
However, this particular accusation was dismissed by the court during a preliminary session last year.
Associated Newspapers has strongly denied the allegations, asserting that they are baseless and false.
It lodged a ‘trenchant defence of its journalism’ with the High Court during the pre-trial stages of the case.
Prince Harry arriving at the High Court in London for the start of his privacy trial, alongside his solicitor Callum Galbraith
The prince arrived by car at 10.06am and walked into a rear entrance of the Royal Courts of Justice
Model Elizabeth Hurley arrives at the High Court accompanied by her son Damian Hurley
Harry flew in from California to attend the opening of the high-profile case, which is estimated to cost £38million.
The King’s son is scheduled to give evidence all day on Thursday.
The duke, along with Baroness Lawrence – the mother of murdered Stephen Lawrence – and Sir Elton, are joined by the singer’s husband David Furnish, model Elizabeth Hurley, actress Sadie Frost and politician Sir Simon Hughes, the former president of the Lib Dems.
The seven claimants will spend about three weeks setting out their case against the publisher.
It begins today and tomorrow with an opening statement by David Sherborne, the barrister for the claimants.
The allegations, which date back to 1997, involve claims that journalists at The Mail on Sunday and the Daily Mail breached the claimants’ privacy by commissioning private investigators to hack into mobile phone voicemail messages, eavesdrop on live landline phonecalls and ‘blag’ personal information including medical and financial records, and ex-directory phone numbers.
Prince Harry, Baroness Lawrence, Sir Elton, Mr Furnish and Ms Hurley all launched their claims citing former private investigator Gavin Burrows, who had ‘confessed’ to carrying out illegal activities for the newspaper.
Mr Burrows has since denied ever working for Associated Newspapers and claims a ‘witness statement’ presented by the claimants’ legal team was not written by him and the signature on it is a forgery.
A photograph taken on a previous occasion of Doreen Lawrence, the mother of murdered Stephen Lawrence, arriving at court with Anjlee Sangani (right), who used to be her solicitor
Sadie Frost arriving at the High Court with her solicitor today
Barrister David Sherborne, pictured walking into court today, is scheduled to spend a day and a half setting out the case on behalf of his seven clients
Gavin Burrows, a former private investigator. His ‘confessions’ led Harry and four others to launch their cases. But he says a ‘statement’ in his name is wrong and has a forged signature
Mr Burrows has been served with a witness summons and is scheduled to give evidence in early February, but there is a question mark over whether he will appear.
He has requested to give evidence from abroad via video link.
Last week, at a pre-trial hearing, Mr Sherborne told the court that Prince Harry’s legal team face ‘exceptionally serious’ allegations of fraud, dishonesty and conspiracy.
He said the publisher’s opening statement to the trial contained ‘multiple express allegations of serious wrongdoing… including that specific lawyers have acted dishonestly in the conduct of proceedings and/or have misled the Court’.
All seven claimants are scheduled to enter the witness box to give their evidence and be questioned about their claims by barristers for Associated Newspapers. They have a number of supporting witnesses, including Ms Frost’s former husband, the actor Jude Law.
After the claimants have presented their case, the trial is due to hear from more than 40 witnesses for Associated Newspapers, which denies ‘unlawful information gathering’.
Its journalists will be questioned about the true sources of their stories. The defence case is scheduled to last until mid-March.
Mr Justice Nicklin, the trial judge, is expected to give his ruling on the case later in the year.
