Harry’s High Court claim against Mail publisher back in court

The duke is part of a group, which includes Sir Elton John, bringing legal action against Associated Newspapers
Prince Harry Court Case Enters Second Day
Getty Images
Jess Glass21 November 2023

The latest stage of the Duke of Sussex’s legal battle with the publisher of the Daily Mail is due to take place at the High Court on Tuesday.

In a ruling on November 10, a judge concluded that Harry – along with other high-profile individuals including Sir Elton John and Baroness Doreen Lawrence – could continue their claims over alleged unlawful information gathering against Associated Newspapers (ANL).

The trio are among a group of high-profile individuals – including Sir Elton’s husband David Furnish, actresses Sadie Frost and Liz Hurley and Barones Doreen Lawrence – accusing the publisher of carrying out or commissioning unlawful activities such as hiring private investigators to place listening devices inside cars, “blagging” private records and accessing and recording private phone conversations.

ANL, which firmly denies the allegations, had asked a judge at a hearing in March to rule in its favour without a trial, arguing the legal challenges were brought “far too late”.

But Mr Justice Nicklin ruled ANL had “not been able to deliver a ‘knockout blow’ to the claims” earlier this month.

In his 95-page-judgment, the judge said that each of the seven people in the ANL claim have a “real prospect” of demonstrating that ANL concealed “relevant facts” that would have allowed them to bring a claim against the publisher earlier.

Hearing in Britain's Prince Harry's lawsuit against Daily Mail publisher
Baroness Doreen Lawrence pictured attending the hearing on Tuesday
REUTERS

A hearing is now due to take place on Tuesday to deal with the consequences of the judgment.

The cases remain at an early stage and ANL has yet to file a formal defence in the case which could see a third High Court trial centred on Harry’s allegations of unlawful information gathering against major newspaper publishers.

Following the ruling, ANL said in a statement: “As we have always made unequivocally clear, the lurid claims made by Prince Harry and others of phone hacking, landline tapping, burglary and sticky-window microphones are simply preposterous and we look forward to establishing this in court in due course.”

The hearing in London was due to begin at 10.30am.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in