Prince Harry has appeared at the High Court in London to begin a hearing against Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail, over alleged phone tapping and breaches of privacy.
The lawsuit, which was also brought by other public figures including Elton John, David Furnish, Elizabeth Hurley, Sadie Frost, and Doreen Lawrence, was launched last year. Specific details of the allegations have not yet been made public due to legal restrictions.
However, a statement released by lawyers for Frost and Harry in October indicated that the case includes accusations of bugging people’s calls, cars, and homes, as well as paying police for sensitive information.
Associated Newspapers has denied the allegations, and is seeking to have the case thrown out during four days of hearings this week. The publisher has previously been sued by Harry and his wife Meghan, with Meghan winning a privacy case against the company in 2021 for printing a letter she had written to her estranged father.
Harry is also suing the Mail on Sunday for libel over an article about his security arrangements, and is expected to appear in court in May to give evidence in a libel trial against the Daily Mirror newspaper over accusations of phone hacking.
The case has been brought against a background of the Sussexes’ high-profile criticisms of the media, which they have accused of intruding into their private lives. The couple cited media intrusion as one reason for their decision to step back from their royal duties and move to California.
However, the presence of Doreen Lawrence, the mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, among the claimants in the case is particularly notable. The Daily Mail had supported Lawrence’s campaign for justice for her son and has called the allegations against her in the current case ‘appalling and utterly groundless smears’.
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