Prince Harry tells court he would feel ‘injustice’ if he loses case
Prince Harry has returned to court for the next stage of his legal battle with Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN).
He admitted he would feel ‘injustice’ if he loses the case, the High Court was told.
The Duke, wearing a dark suit and silver tie, smiled and waved to crowds as he emerged from a black Range Rover shortly at 9.52am.
In a unexpected twist, East 17 singer Brian Harvey was among the public awaiting his arrival.
Harry said good morning but did not answer reporters’ questions before walking into London’s Rolls Building and passing security checks to enter the courtroom.
Yesterday, Harry spoke out against Piers Morgan, ‘Hewitt rumours’ and the Government.
Today, he focused on his time as a cadet at Sandhurst, his ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy and even Prince William.
An article about the Duke of Sussex breaking up with former girlfriend Chelsy Davy appeared to be ‘celebrating’ their split and was ‘hurtful’, Harry told the High Court.
His comments came as MGN’s barrister Andrew Green KC turned his questioning to a November 2007 Sunday Mirror article entitled ‘Hooray Harry’s dumped’.
The story reported that the duke went to west London nightclub Amika and ‘drowned his sorrows’ over the split, with Harry complaining over its alleged use of his private information.
‘The level of surveillance that I was under was quite something,’ the duke said.
The publisher also said information in the story came from a News of the World article on the same day and that there is no evidence of phone hacking.
As the duke’s cross-examination resumed on Wednesday, Andrew Green KC, for MGN, had asked Harry about an article published in the Sunday People in May 2005 about him having a knee injury and fellow cadets at Sandhurst complaining he was given ‘preferential treatment’ by being let off ‘gruelling marches’.
Mr Green asked about a press release issued by Clarence House about the injury, which included a quote from Harry.
The barrister asked if the duke stood by the evidence in his witness statement, in which he said he was not ‘going around discussing any medical issues or injuries’.
‘Yes, it is entirely accurate,’ Harry replied. ‘That is a reference to while I was at Sandhurst and the distrust that I ended up having … with the medical staff at Sandhurst.’
Mr Green then turned to an article published in the Independent on the same day as the People article, and asked the duke if he accepted there was a degree of public interest in the story.
Harry replied: ‘No, I do not.’
Mr Green asked the duke what he thought a public interest story about him would be, to which he said: ‘A life-threatening injury, I’m sure there are others.’
Harry is set to finish his oral evidence on Wednesday afternoon.
He alleges that about 140 articles published between 1996 and 2010 by MGN titles contained information gathered using unlawful methods, and 33 of these have been selected to be considered at the trial.
During the duke’s first day in the witness box, Mr Green asked why Harry has complained about articles in MGN titles when the same information had previously been put into the public domain by other media outlets.
Harry said his understanding was that MGN journalists used unlawful methods to get ‘exclusive’ angles on existing stories or to move the story on in some way.
Part of the publisher’s case is that the stories came from a range of lawful sources, including information disclosed by royal households, freelance journalists and news agencies as well as confidential sources with ‘extensive’ royal contacts.
Today, Mr Green asked the duke if he was aware that the claimants in the 2015 phone hacking trial against the newspaper publisher had ‘extensive call data’ showing calls to their mobile phones.
Harry said he was not aware of that.
Mr Green asked if the lack of call data in his claim suggests his phone wasn’t hacked, to which the duke replied: ‘Absolutely not.’
The barrister then asked Harry if he would be ‘disappointed’ if the court finds his phone was not hacked by MGN journalists.
Harry said he would be ‘speculating’, but when pushed further for an answer said he would ‘feel some injustice’.
He told the court: ‘I believe that phone hacking was (done) on an industrial scale across at least three of the papers at the time… that is beyond any doubt.
‘To have a decision against me and any of the other people (bringing a claim), given that Mirror Group have admitted hacking, yes, I would feel some injustice… if it wasn’t accepted.’
Yesterday, Harry faced nearly five hours of questions from a barrister as he became the first senior royal in more than two decades to appear personally in court proceedings.
In a blistering 55-page witness statement, Harry spoke of journalists having ‘blood’ on their ‘typing fingers’.
Describing the process of the tabloid press reacting to a new member of the Royal Family, he wrote: ‘You start off as a blank canvas while they work out what kind of person you are and what kind of problems and temptations you might have.
‘They then start to edge you towards playing the role or roles that suit them best and which sells as many newspapers as possible, especially if you are the “spare” to the “heir”.
‘You’re then either the “playboy prince”, the “failure”, the “drop out” or, in my case, the “thicko”, the “cheat”, the “underage drinker”, the “irresponsible drug taker”, the list goes on.’
Harry’s statements were reported by journalists in the court room but, since cameras are not allowed to film the proceedings, news networks enlisted lookalikes to bring the story to life.
Doing so garnered mix reaction.
Yesterday afternoon, Harry was accused of operating in the ‘realms of total speculation’ over claims of phone hacking or illegal activity.
During his cross-examination at the High Court, Andrew Green, KC for Mirror Group Newspapers, told The Duke of Sussex: ‘That’s not an answer’ in a heated moment.
Mr Green said ‘Are we not, Prince Harry, in the realms of total speculation?’ shortly after the royal, 38, said he was ‘not sure’ whose phone was hacked when he broke his thumb playing football at Eton and it appeared in the Press.
The barrister was asking Harry about an article headlined ‘Snap: Harry breaks thumb like William’ which appeared in the Daily Mirror in November 2000.
Harry confirmed to Mr Green that he complains about the reporting in this article of an injury to his thumb and added: ‘I do not believe that is in the public interest.’
The duke said he was not aware the information about his thumb had been reported by the Press Association, in an article the day before the Mirror one which quoted a St James’s Palace spokesperson.
Asked whether he had expressed any concerns to the Press Association about that article, Harry said he had not, adding that he was ‘not aware’ of it.
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