10 November 2023 , 12:46
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Prince Harry has broken his silence after he was today given the go ahead to continue his court case against the Daily Mail.
The Duke of Sussex, Baroness Doreen Lawrence and Sir Elton John are reportedly “delighted” with a High Court judge’s ruling that their claims against the publisher of the Daily Mail can head to trial, their lawyers have said.
In a statement on behalf of trio and David Furnish, Liz Hurley, Sadie Frost and Sir Simon Hughes, published by the law firm Hamlins, they said: “We are delighted with today’s decision which allows our claims over serious criminal activity and gross breaches of privacy by the Mail titles to proceed to trial.
“The High Court has dismissed ‘without difficulty’ the attempt by Associated Newspapers, publisher of The Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday and the Mail Online, to throw these cases out. Indeed, the judge found that each of our claims had a real prospect of showing there was concealment of unlawful acts by the Mail titles and that this could not have been discovered until recently. Our claims can now proceed to trial.
“As we have maintained since the outset, we bring our claims over the deplorable and illegal activities which took place over many years, including private investigators being hired to place secretly listening devices inside our cars and homes, the tapping of our phone calls, corrupt payments to police for inside information, and the illegal accessing of our medical information from hospitals and financial information from banks. We intend to uncover the truth at trial and hold those responsible at Associated Newspapers fully accountable.
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Sir Elton John leaves the Royal Courts Of Justice, central London at an earlier hearing (PA)“The judge also found ledgers showing secret payments by The Mail and The Mail On Sunday to private investigators which had been provided to our lawyers and could not be used at this stage without the consent of the newspapers or the Government.
“This only delays the inevitable since they will have to be produced in the course of the claim by Associated in any event.
“However, if The Mail and The Mail On Sunday have nothing to hide, and they genuinely believe our allegations are unfounded, as they appear to claim, they should provide us with the ledgers voluntarily now, and let the claims proceed to trial as quickly as possible."
Associated Newspapers (ANL) which firmly denies the allegations, had asked a judge at a hearing in March to rule in its favour without a trial, arguing the legal challenges were brought “far too late”.
But in a ruling today, Mr Justice Nicklin said ANL had “not been able to deliver a ‘knockout blow’ to the claims of any of these claimants”. The cases remain at an early stage and ANL has yet to file a formal defence, with a further hearing due on November 21.
Baroness Doreen Lawrence at the High Court in March (David Fisher/REX/Shutterstock)ANL said in a statement: “As we have always made unequivocally clear, the lurid claims made by Prince Harry and others of phone-hacking, landline-tapping, burglary and sticky-window microphones are simply preposterous and we look forward to establishing this in court in due course.”
In his 95-page-judgment, Mr Justice Nicklin said that each of the seven people in the ANL claim have a “real prospect” of demonstrating that ANL concealed “relevant facts” that would have allowed them to bring a claim against the publisher earlier. “Whilst it is common ground that the publication of any unlawful articles was not concealed, these were, on the claimants’ case, only the tip of the iceberg,” the judge added.
“What was deliberately hidden from the claimants – if they are correct in their allegations – were the underlying unlawful acts that are alleged to have been used to obtain information for subsequent publication.”