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London — Prince Harry was back in London on Monday, sitting in the U.K.’s highest court to take part in the third and final of his outstanding legal battles against Britain’s tabloid newspapers.
Harry is among the high-profile claimants, along with Sir Elton John and actresses Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost, who have accused the Associated Newspapers group of “unlawful information gathering.”
The 41-year-old royal, who lives in California, and his fellow celebrities claim the company, which publishes the Daily Mail and the linked MailOnline website, illegally snooped on them by hiring private investigators to hack their phones, bug their cars and access private records to generate scoops.
The publisher has denied all of the accusations, calling them “preposterous smears” and part of a coordinated effort driven by the claimants’ personal dislike of the news media.
In a witness submission seen by CBS News, Harry said it was, “disturbing to feel that my every move, thought or feeling was being tracked and monitored just for the Mail to make money out of it,” adding that the “terrifying” intrusion made him, “paranoid beyond belief, isolating me.”
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Harry, the Duke of Sussex, whose case is based on 14 separate newspaper stories, says the alleged illegal information gathering between 1993 and 2011 put a “massive strain” on his personal relationships. He has long blamed the media for the death of his mother, Princess Diana, who was killed in a car crash in 1997 as her vehicle was pursued by photographers on motorcycles.
He listened in court Monday as his lawyer argued that there was, “clear, systematic and sustained use of unlawful information gathering at both the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday.”
Testimony from several private investigators, who have said they worked on behalf of Associated Newspapers, will be used in the trial. CBS News’ partner network BBC news reported Monday that Harry was expected to take the stand himself to offer evidence.
During his first legal battle with the press, in 2019, against the owners of The Mirror for hacking his phone, Harry became the first senior member of the royal family to give in-person testimony in a British court in more than 130 years. Courts ruled in his favor multiple times in that case.
“The journalists who used me and the editors who sanctioned this knew full well that I was a practitioner of the ‘Dark Arts,'” private investigator Steve Whittamore said in a witness statement ahead of the trial that began Monday. “If the information the journalists requested could have been acquired legitimately … then the newspapers would have had no need to use my particular services.”
Another witness, known as “Detective Danno,” claims to have been paid the equivalent of more than $1 million by the Mail for over 20 years of work for the paper.
The publisher has argued that evidence from private detectives can’t be trusted.
Royah Nikkhah, royal editor for The Sunday Times and a CBS News contributor, said Monday that Prince William appeared to be “full of confidence” about his case, but “he’s not really relishing the prospect of being in court all week.”
Last year, Rupert Murdoch’s right-leaning News Group Newspapers settled out of court with the royal, offering a full formal apology for “serious intrusion” and a multi-million dollar payout.
The case against Associated Newspapers is expected to last nine weeks, culminating with a decision by Judge Matthew Nicklin, whose verdict will determine not only the lasting reputation of a major media company, but also who foots the bill for tens of millions of dollars in legal costs.
“If Harry wins this case, it will give him a feeling … that he wasn’t being paranoid all the time,” Nikkhah told CBS News. “If Harry loses this case, it’s huge jeopardy for him, not just in terms of cost, but in terms of pushing all the way to trial and not seeking to settle. So we have to wait and see, but it’s high stakes for Harry.”
