By Michael Holden and Sam Tobin
LONDON (Reuters) -Lawyers representing Prince Harry and other high-profile figures bringing privacy lawsuits against the publisher of the Daily Mail tabloid said on Wednesday new evidence showed his brother Prince William and the heir’s wife Kate were also targets.
Harry, the younger son of King Charles, and six others including singer Elton John, are suing Associated Newspapers (ANL) at London’s High Court over alleged serious privacy breaches dating back 30 years.
ANL, which also publishes the Mail on Sunday and the MailOnline, denies any wrongdoing and says their “lurid” claims are preposterous.
TRIAL DUE NEXT YEAR
A trial is due to take place early next year, but on Wednesday lawyers for both sides argued over what allegations should be included.
In court filings, the claimants’ legal team made allegations for the first time that the Mail was involved in targeting Harry’s elder brother Prince William and his wife Kate.
They said information provided last week suggested details about William’s 21st birthday party in 2003 were obtained by “blagging” – obtaining confidential details about him by deception.
Kate was also allegedly targeted by a private investigator on behalf of a Mail journalist, the lawyers said.
Previous cases against newspapers have heard that William and Kate had their mobile phones hacked by journalists and William had in private settled a claim against Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper arm, News Group Newspapers (NGN).
Meanwhile, the publisher argued the claimants’ lawyers had wrongly failed to stick to specific allegations of wrongdoing by named journalists or private investigators acting for them.
ANL also said specific elements of the claimants’ case should be thrown out, including findings made in separate lawsuits against NGN and the publisher of the Daily Mirror.
ANL’s lawyer Antony White told the court that lawyers for Harry and the others were either being “tin-eared” or openly defiant of previous rulings.
He said in court filings that two claimants – actor Sadie Frost and former lawmaker Simon Hughes – were involved in a scheme to have stories published about privacy breaches to get round the usual six-year time limit on bringing a lawsuit.
The High Court ruled in the claimants’ favour on the time limit issue in late 2023.
CLAIMANTS IN COURT, PRINCE HARRY LISTENING IN
The seven claimants – who include Elton John’s husband David Furnish – accuse ANL of activities such as hacking their voicemails, burglary, and obtaining their medical records by deception.
Frost, Furnish and Hughes attended court for Wednesday’s hearing. Harry was listening in remotely.
The litigation is the first time ANL has been dragged into the phone-hacking scandal, which began almost 20 years ago, leading to a public inquiry into the ethics of the press, several criminal trials and an admission by some papers that they unlawfully targeted thousands of victims.
Over the last six years, Harry, the Duke of Sussex, has been engaged in open warfare with British tabloids, accusing senior editors of authorising unlawful intrusions into people’s public lives, destroying friendships and relationships.
He also blames the press for the death of his mother Princess Diana, who was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997 as her vehicle sped away from chasing paparazzi photographers.
Harry has twice sued ANL for libel, winning one case and withdrawing the other, while his wife Meghan has also won a privacy lawsuit against the publisher.
He has also successfully sued Mirror Group Newspapers while Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers settled a claim ahead of a trial.
(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Alison Williams)
