Prince Harry believes he has faced a “sustained campaign” of attacks for standing up to the publisher of the Daily Mail, the High Court has heard. Lawyers for the Duke of Sussex set out 14 articles about him that they allege were obtained through unlawful information-gathering by Associated Newspapers Ltd, which publishes the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday.
David Sherborne, the barrister representing the duke and six other prominent figures in the case, claimed flight details and sensitive information that had serious implications for Harry’s security had been obtained unlawfully. “In his witness statement for the trial, the Duke of Sussex speaks of the impact which this has had on him, the distress, the paranoia and the other feelings that it generated,” Sherborne told the High Court in London.
Sherborne highlighted articles he said bore the “hallmarks of unlawful information gathering”. One article, which cited a “family source”, revealed Harry had been chosen as godfather to the child of his former nanny, Tiggy Legge-Bourke. Sherborne said no one in the wider family had been told, including King Charles.
Other stories contained details of Harry’s relationship with his former girlfriend Chelsy Davy. Sherborne told the court that the private investigator Mike Behr had been paid £200 in cash by a Daily Mail royal editor for a “Chelsy tip”, which included Davy’s exact flight details.
Associated’s legal team said in written submissions that the stories had been obtained “entirely legitimately from information variously provided by contacts of the journalists responsible, including individuals in the Duke of Sussex’s social circle, press officers and publicists, freelance journalists, photographers and prior reports”. However, Sherborne argued that the explanations “stretch plausibility and are to be dismissed accordingly”.
The trial continues, with Prince Harry expected to give evidence this week.