Lawyers for Prince Harry and six other public figures are claiming “substantial” damages for privacy infringement against the publisher of the Daily Mail, whose trial at the High Court in London concluded on Tuesday.
These plaintiffs, including Elton John and actress Elizabeth Hurley, accuse Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL), the owner of the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday, of illegally obtaining information about them. The defense, however, is calling it “speculation.”
During the trial, which lasted over two months, these public figures gave sometimes emotional testimonies. They accused the tabloids of intercepting voicemails, eavesdropping on phone conversations, and lying to obtain medical information for over fifty articles published between 1993 and 2018.
Damages “substantial”
“The Court is asked to award substantial damages… to each of the plaintiffs for the misuse of private information concerning them,” their lawyers stated in their final written submissions. Following the last hearing on Tuesday, Judge Matthew Nicklin announced that the verdict, to be delivered in writing, would take “some time.” This is the latest lawsuit brought against the tabloids by Harry, the younger son of King Charles III, who has been waging a legal battle against the powerful British tabloid press for several years.
Harry, who now lives in California with his wife Meghan and their two children, holds the paparazzi responsible for the death of his mother Diana in 1997 in Paris. He has also accused the press of harassing Meghan. In court in January, on the verge of tears, he accused the tabloids of making his wife’s life “absolutely unbearable.” He also described how the newspapers’ intrusions into his private life made him “extremely paranoid.” Harry, 41, stepped back from the royal family in 2020 and moved to the United States.
“Ordinary and legitimate journalism, based on previous reports or confidential sources, is more likely than phone hacking, phone eavesdropping, or other forms of illegal information gathering,” he argued in court. Antony White, however, admitted the use of private detectives in some cases to obtain phone numbers and addresses.
“Absolute nonsense”
The chief reporter of the Daily Mail, Sam Greenhill, dismissed the phone hacking allegations as “absolute nonsense” in court. Another journalist, Barbara Jones, claimed she had found information about Harry’s former girlfriend and did everything “by the book.”
Prince Harry and the other plaintiffs insist that their loved ones would never have disclosed the private information that was published in the articles in question. Testifying in January, British actress Liz Hurley broke down in tears, accusing the tabloids of placing microphones on the windows of her house, describing the actions as “monstrous.”
Elton John also expressed his anger in a video statement in February, condemning the “outrageous” invasions of his privacy by the publications, accused of accessing medical data surrounding the birth of his son Zachary.
