Prince Harry was interrogated during a “hilarious” night at a “shabby strip club” today and again accused of “speculation” after admitting he wasn’t sure his phone had been hacked.
The Duke is suing Mirror Group Newspapers for damages over allegations that journalists at the newspaper used hacking, “showing off” and other illegal means of deception to write 140 articles published between 1996 and 2010.
On the second day of a grueling cross-examination, he repeatedly clashed with the KC, who represented the publisher.
Andrew Green KC, after a heated exchange, told the prince: “May I just repeat what I said yesterday – it’s about me asking you questions, not you asking me questions.”
Meanwhile, Harry repeatedly resisted the attorney’s questioning, telling him several times, “I’ll take your word for it.”
Prince Harry pictured leaving the High Court in London after testifying for a second day in the phone hacking trial
Court artist’s sketch shows Prince Harry being cross-examined by Andrew Green KC, who acts for Mirror Group Newspapers
The Duke (left in court sketch) is suing Mirror Group Newspapers for damages over allegations that journalists used hacking, ‘showing off’ and other illegal means of deception in writing 140 articles
On the second day of Harry’s grueling cross-examination, the Duke said –
- He told the court he filed the lawsuit against MGN to protect his wife Meghan Markle from “interference and hatred”;
- He said he would feel a sense of “injustice” if his claims were rejected by the judge;
- Has repeatedly denied engaging in “outright speculation” over his allegations of unlawful intelligence gathering by MGN;
- He said he “knows about” Omid Scobie – who wrote his unofficial biography, Spare;
- He said he once found a tracking device in his ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy’s car, said to have been placed there by a private investigator, Mike Behr;
Today, Harry told the Supreme Court that he initially decided to file a lawsuit against MGN after he clashed with his lawyer, David Sherborne, while on holiday in France.
“I think it was a discussion of how to find a way to stop the abuse and intrusion that has come against me and my wife… without relying on the institution’s attorneys,” Harry said.
Mr Green asked him if Harry knew he had a claim against MGN before the interview.
“Not at all,” replied the prince.
Harry told the court that he filed his claims against MGN and News Group “around the same time.”
He said he believed there had been an “industrial-scale evidence destruction” of unlawful information. When asked by Mr. Green where he got the idea from, he replied: “My legal team.”
Hacker case about Prince Harry: What the court heard yesterday
- Harry attacked the media and criticized the “lowest” British government;
- He described Princess Diana’s former butler, Paul Burrell, as a “double-tongued bastard”;
- He said stories about James Hewitt being his “biological father” made him worry “I might be ousted from the royal family”;
- He said he feared being expelled from Eton for drug use;
- He said he made a “stupid decision” at a costume party where he was accused of “flirting with a brunette” while dating Chelsy Davy;
- He said he could not remember the details of a hunting trip he took with wife Davy to South Africa in 2005;
- He claimed “horrible personal attacks and intimidation” against him and Meghan were allegedly carried out by former editor Piers Morgan;
- Harry has been accused by attorney Andrew Green KC of being “in the realm of total speculation”;
- Duke repeatedly said, “You’d have to ask the journalists yourself” when asked how he could prove articles were hacked.
- Sometimes he had trouble finding evidence on the screen in front of him. “It’s on the screen in front of you,” Mr Green told him. “It isn’t,” Harry said. “I think so,” said the attorney. “If you say so,” said Harry;
- In one conversation, he told Mr Green: “As a chef, he would be too busy to make that call.” In return, Mr Green suggested that he would have other chefs work for him. “I have no idea, I’ve never worked in a kitchen before,” the prince replied.
The attorney asked if he thought his phone had been “continuously hacked” in the 15 years between 1996 and 2011, the period that his lawsuit against MGN sits.
“It could have happened any day, I just don’t know,” Harry replied.
When asked if he was aware of any evidence of this, Harry replied, “No, that’s one of the reasons I’m here, my lord.”
One of the many stories Mr Green mentioned was an April 2006 Sunday People article about Harry visiting a Spearmint Rhino lap dance club near Slough with friends.
The story, headlined “Chel Shocked,” reported that Harry’s girlfriend Chelsy Davy “turned her head” over his “hilarious” night out at a “dingy strip club.”
Testifying yesterday, Harry said he “to the best of my knowledge” didn’t recall his ex “gone crazy” about the night.
He also claimed that a journalist obtained details of the evening by hacking a phone. And today he also claimed that additional details had come from a bouncer paid by MGN.
Earlier today in cross-examination, Mr Green asked the Duke about another article published in the Sunday People in May 2005 about his knee injury and his fellow cadets at Sandhurst, who complained that he was being given “preferential treatment” because of “grueling marches”. was excluded. .
The solicitor asked for a press release from Clarence House about the injury, which included a quote from Harry. He asked the Duke if he stood by the evidence in his testimony, in which he said he “wouldn’t discuss any medical issues or injuries.”
Harry replied, “Yes, it’s absolutely correct.” “It’s a nod to the time I was at Sandhurst and the distrust I ended up having…of the medical staff at Sandhurst.”
Mr Green then turned to an article published in the Independent newspaper on the same day as the People article and asked the Duke if he accepted that there was some public interest in the story.
Yesterday Harry said there is “a difference between the public interest and what is in the public interest”.
Harry replied today, “No, I don’t.”
Mr Green asked the Duke what he thought was a story of public interest about him.
“I’m not exactly sure, I would speculate,” Harry replied.
“Could you speculate for a moment,” said Mr. Green.
Harry said it could be in the public interest to report “a life-threatening injury” he suffered.
At one point in the cross-examination, the king spoke directly to the judge.
Mr Green replied: “Could I ask the questions?”
In another heated conversation, Harry was asked if he would be happy or disappointed to learn his phone had never been hacked by Mirror Group journalists.
“That would be speculation,” Harry replied.
He said newspapers had been hacked on an “industrial scale” and would therefore find it “an injustice” if this were not “proven” in his case.
“So you want your phone to have been hacked,” Mr Green said.
“No one wants their phone hacked,” Harry replied.
Prince Harry waved and smiled as he arrived at the High Court in London this morning
Harry is greeted in front of the High Court’s Rolls Building
A Spearmint Rhino branch in Slough
Mr Green questioned Harry about a September 2007 People article which claimed his relationship at the time was “in crisis after a series of acrimonious arguments”.
Harry told the court that “the entire article itself is suspect,” adding, “I have never discussed the details of my relationship with my girlfriend with the Palace.”
Mr Green asked the Duke if he claimed the information in the story came from phone hacking.
“Yes,” said Harry, adding, “I say that anything attributed to a palace source…was obtained unlawfully.”
“The palace would not know this information.”
Mr Green said the prince was in “the land of total speculation as to where this information might have come from”.
“Not at all, I disagree,” Harry replied.
Mr Green also used the phrase yesterday when Harry said he was “not sure” whose phone was hacked when he broke his thumb playing football at Eton, and it appeared in the media.
The Duke then claimed another Mirror article about his split from Chelsy Davy was obtained by tapping voicemail.
Mr Green arrives at the High Court in London for the second day of Harry’s cross-examination
Prince Harry is suing Mirror Group Newspapers for damages over allegations that 140 articles published by its titles between 1996 and 2010 contained information gathered through unlawful methods
Harry was carrying a bundle of documents in his hand as he entered the courtroom
The Down in the Dumped article reported on an “emotional phone call” in which Ms Davy appeared to have asked for a court separation.
Harry said in his testimony yesterday that the article “contained a quote from a ‘friend’ saying we needed some time off but that we’d probably get back together.
But he said neither he nor Ms Davy have ever spoken out about what happened to anyone outside of their closest friends.
Harry said he believed the information could have been obtained via voicemail, but confirmed he didn’t specifically recall leaving a voicemail as it was so long ago.
Mr Green said the split in court had “already been widely reported” in the Sunday newspapers. “I trust your word, Mr. Green,” Harry replied.
Referring to a December 2007 article about Harry dropping Ms Davy off after they spent the night at Kensington Palace, which included a paparazzi photo of Ms Davy, Mr Green opined that it was something “everybody should have been watching.” can”.
The lawyer said there were often photographers outside the palace, to which Harry said: “They were only there for pretty much emergencies or big royal family moments – weddings, engagements, hospital visits.”
Mr Green said, “You were there on that occasion,” to which Harry replied, “That’s why it’s suspicious.”
The prince said he suspected he saw the article at the time of publication as he believed his security team had alerted him.
Mr Green also mentioned a Sunday Mirror article about Harry’s split from wife Davy, which was headlined ‘Hooray, Harry’s dumped’ and included reports of a ‘vodka bout’.
The Duke said it was “hurting to say the least” that “such a private moment was turned into a bit of a laugh”.
Mr Green said the nickname had been used in previous stories to describe the king.
“It wasn’t about celebrating the demise of your relationship,” he added.
After the Duke of Sussex finished his testimony, former Daily Mirror royal correspondent Jane Kerr, one of the MGN witnesses at the trial, was sworn in.
In written testimony, Ms Kerr said she became a royal reporter and later a royal correspondent for the newspaper from around 1997 to 2007.
Ms. Kerr’s title appears in a series of articles under consideration in Harry’s lawsuit against MGN for alleged unlawful information gathering.
She said in her statement, “I have never engaged in voice mail tapping at MGN or elsewhere, and I have never engaged the services of private investigators or other third parties to conduct unlawful intelligence gathering activities.”
In a 49-page testimony released yesterday, the Duke said he had “a very difficult time trusting anyone, which led to bouts of depression and paranoia”.
“Friendships were lost completely unnecessarily,” he said, later adding that some of his friends were “immediately targeted.”
David Sherborne, Prince Harry’s lead attorney, smiles for the cameras as he appears in court today
Boxes will be carried into the Supreme Court before the hearing this morning
The Duke later said he could now see “how much of my life was wasted on this paranoia,” adding, “I’ve always heard people call my mother paranoid, but that wasn’t the case .”
“She was scared of what was actually happening to her, and now I know I felt the same way.”
Mr. Green questioned Harry about 20 of the 33 articles over the course of yesterday.
Harry was asked why he had complained about articles in MGN titles when the same information had previously been made publicly available by other media outlets.
The Duke said he understood MGN journalists had used unlawful methods to gain “exclusive” angles on existing stories or to advance the story in any way.
Mr Green also asked Harry about his allegations that articles “made him paranoid and distrustful of those around him” and whether he was referring to specific MGN articles or “the overall effect of all articles” on him.
Harry said, “Yes, because… it’s been 20 years and I can only speculate if I saw those articles then.”
“I certainly saw a lot of articles at the time and was made aware of this… unfortunately by the behavior and reaction of my inner circle.”
The Duke added that “your circle of friends shrinks” when information he’d only shared with a few of his closest circle was made public.
The Duke of Sussex faced five grueling hours of cross-examination yesterday
MGN denies its allegation and has either denied or not admitted that the articles about Harry, who was being questioned at the trial, involved phone hacking or illegal activity.
Opening the Duke’s individual case on Monday, Mr Green said there was “simply no evidence to support a finding that the Duke of Sussex was hacked, let alone on a habitual basis” and that the payment records used in the Duke’s claim were “simple demonstrate no unlawful conduct or knowledge thereof”.
Harry’s lawsuit is being heard along with three other “representative” lawsuits in a trial that began last month and is expected to last six to seven weeks.
The three other representative plaintiffs are Coronation Street actor Michael Turner – known professionally as Michael Le Vell – best known for his role as Kevin Webster on the long-running soap, former Coronation Street actress Nikki Sanderson and ex -Wife of comedian Paul Whitehouse, Fiona Wightman.
Below is Harry’s full written testimony