Prince Harry limps through five hours in witness box as his case fell apart & veered into ‘realm of speculation’
PRINCE Harry limped through five hours in a witness box as his case fell apart, needing help with paperwork and told he was veering into the “realms of total speculation”.
The 38-year-old, ticked off by the judge for failing to attend on Monday, took his seat five minutes early, before becoming the first royal in 132 years to testify in court.
But the California-based duke — who requested to be referred to as “Prince Harry” — had his carefully crafted evidence repeatedly skewered by defence barrister Andrew Green KC.
The prince, who claims the Mirror Group used unlawful methods including hacking his mobile phone, struggled to present his case at a packed courtroom 15 in the Rolls Building, London.
The first stumble came when he alleged a story in 1996 about his mother Princess Diana visiting him on his 12th birthday was obtained by phone hacking.
However, the court heard he did not possess a mobile until two years later. Mr Green, for the Mirror Group, said: “It couldn’t be from phone hacking.”
Another story he is suing over — about his becoming an Eton Parade Commander — came from a Palace press release.
Harry was also confronted with evidence that a story he claimed was illegally sourced actually came in a pooled interview he gave to mark his 18th birthday.
Mr Green told him: “Private information which you complain about in the Daily Mirror article has been revealed by you in an interview and published in various Sunday newspapers before appearing in the Daily Mirror.”
Harry replied, “I see the similarities”, before adding: “The timing is suspicious.”
Harry was also admonished over his allegations that a journalist must have hacked a phone for a story about him injuring his thumb at Eton College.
Pressed on which phone would have been hacked, the prince said he “can’t be sure”.
Mr Green responded: “That’s not an answer.” Harry said: “The doctor’s? I’m not sure.”
Mr Green then hit back: “Are we not, Prince Harry, in the realms of total speculation?”
The duke replied: “I’m not the one who wrote the article. You’d have to ask the journalist.”
Mr Green also revealed the Palace had issued a comment on the injury 24 hours earlier.
Prince Harry told the court: “I wasn’t aware of it.”
At one point Mr Green told him: “You are accusing journalists of having been involved in criminal activity. Does it strike you a little unfair as the information came from another article and with the cooperation of the Palace?”
The court was also told that his trusted mentor Mark “Marko” Dyer provided quotes for another article in which he claimed information was illegally obtained.
Harry, clearly surprised, said: “I see the similarities. I have never spoken to him about it.”
Harry also dragged his ex-flame Chelsy Davy into his case. In a lengthy legal document he names her 104 times while wife Meghan is referred to by name only twice.
He repeatedly called Chelsy “my girlfriend” during his evidence.
Harry revealed he had “difficult and testy conversations” with her when she moved to Leeds in 2007 and the pair broke up “a couple of times”.
The prince, an Afghan veteran, also said that it was a “particularly strained” time because “my military commitments meant I actually did not have much time to talk to her, let alone see her”.
Harry claimed “my relationship with Chelsy was always set to be doomed” due to press interest.
He accused one Mirror journalist of “advertising my travel plans,” while he was dating her in 2004, saying of one story: “I’m at a complete loss as to how these details were obtained.”
But another Mirror story Harry is suing over appeared 24 hours before in another paper via an interview with Chelsy’s uncle.
Harry flew to the UK on Sunday evening after celebrating daughter Lilibet‘s second birthday.
He arrived for the hearing yesterday in a car with two security officials who remained in the court throughout the day.
But an hour into the grilling, he became frustrated with the amount of paperwork in his witness box.
Paralegal Michael Stakem, of Clinton’s law firm, then assisted him after a mid-morning break.
Grilled about stories that make up his case which had appeared previously in the media or released by the Palace, he replied: “It’s a question for my legal team.”
Another article Harry referred to in his witness statement was about his presence at celebrity chef Ed Baines’ gastropub in West London.
Mr Green suggested the cook could have tipped off the press.
In response to questioning about an article on his part in a school cadet event, Harry replied: “My mind’s gone blank for a moment.”
The prince later admitted: “I can’t be sure how much of [the articles] I read and which ones I read and which ones I didn’t.
“I started to re-examine the articles once I had realised they had been unlawfully [obtained].” At one point, barristers requested he “speak up” as many in the court could not hear him.
Extracts from his memoir Spare were also read to the court.
Harry, who confessed to taking cannabis, cocaine and hallucinogens in the book, was forced under oath to speak about his drug habit.
He said: “I’ve never smoked a joint in the Rattlebone Inn (a pub he frequented as a teenager) and never did any drugs in my father’s house.”
During five hours of cross-examination — which will continue until lunchtime today — it was revealed Harry had conflicting accounts over his plans to meet Diana’s ex-butler Paul Burrell.
He was challenged over his witness statement in which he said in 2003 that “I had made my mind up about the kind of person I thought Paul was and was firmly against meeting him at that point of my life.”
But it was pointed out that in Spare Harry claimed “he was milking her disappearance for money”
He added: “It made my blood boil. I wanted to fly home, confront him.
“I phoned Pa, announced that I was getting on a plane. I’m sure it was the one and only conversation I had with him while I was in Australia. Willy talked me out of it.”
Asked about the contradictory stories, Harry said: “I can’t remember whether I wanted a meeting with him or not.”
It was also pointed out that a quote in a Mirror article he is claiming damages over also appeared in The Times on the same day.
Asked if he would like to see it, Harry shrugged his shoulders and replied: “Probably not.”
5 KEY INCONSISTENCIES
FIVE of Prince Harry’s key claims struggled to stand up to scrutiny.
- His lawyers claimed details about his 18th birthday party were obtained from voicemails when they were from an interview he gave to the Press Association news agency.
- He said he did not want to meet Paul Burrell but in Spare he wrote that he wanted to confront him.
- Harry called a story about his leading a cadet parade at Eton “very suspicious”. It was put into the public domain by St James’s Palace.
- He complained of phone hacking fears from 1996 but admitted in court he did not own a mobile then.
- He said a story about a meal at a Chelsea pub for his 16th birthday came from hacking — yet then added that he had “no idea” how it was obtained.