Why is Prince Harry in court?

Prince Harry unexpectedly appeared at London’s High Court on Monday with some of the other defendants for a lawsuit against Associated Newspapers Ltd. (ANL), the affiliate publisher of the Daily Mail, which was filed in October 2022.

The allegations are for illegal information gathering. The hearing will examine the claims Prince Harry and seven other defendants are making against ANL, who is arguing for the case to be dismissed.

After the judge has heard legal arguments from either side, they will decide whether the case should go to trial.

According to the BBC, Associated Newspapers will be arguing for a dismissal due to the allegations being “preposterous smears.”

Who are the other claimants?

The claimants include Prince Harry, along with Elton John and his partner, David Furnish, who also attended Monday’s hearing, along with Jude Law’s ex-wife Sadie Frost.

British actress Elizabeth Hurley, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, the mother of attack victim Stephen Lawrence, and Sir Simon Hughes, previous UK government minister and now Liberal Party politician, are also involved.

What are the allegations?

Prince Harry’s lawyers claim that the Duke of Sussex and his fellow claimants are victims of extreme breach of privacy.

“The claimants each claim that in different ways they were the victim of numerous unlawful acts carried out by the defendant, or by those acting on the instructions of its newspapers, the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday,” David Sherborne, head lawyer for the group, said.

“Illegally intercepting voicemail messages; listening into live landline calls; obtaining private information, such as itemized phone bills or medical records, by deception or ‘blagging’, using private investigators to commit these unlawful information gathering acts on their behalf and even commissioning the breaking and entry into private property.

“They range through a period from 1993 to 2011, even continuing beyond until 2018.”

Further allegations included unlawful practices such as hiring “private investigators to secretly place listening devices inside people’s cars and homes,” and the “commissioning of individuals to surreptitiously listen into and record people’s live, private telephone calls whilst they were taking place.”

The lawyer continued that the publishers paid off police “with corrupt links to private investigators” to gather private, sensitive information.

“[The defendants have] become aware of compelling and highly distressing evidence that they have been the victims of abhorrent criminal activity and gross breaches of privacy by Associated Newspapers,” the lawyer said.