Prince Harry’s lawyer accues publisher of the Daily Mail of ‘gaslighing’ victims

Prince Harry returned to a London court for a dramatic day in which his lawyer made fresh accusations against a media publisher.

Prince Harry has made a dramatic late appearance at the London High Court of Justice for the last day of his privacy case against the Daily Mail newspaper group publisher.

The Duke of Sussex was absent from court on Wednesday local time but returned to watch the last few hours of the preliminary hearing into a case he and six other prominent claimants have brought against the newspaper group publisher Associated Newspapers Limited.

It comes as King Charles paid tribute to the Queen in a historic speech before German parliament while his son sat in a London court.

Prince Harry was back in court in London. Picture: Getty Images

In a witness statement to the court released earlier this week, Prince Harry, who sat in court on Thursday for just under an hour, said he was “deeply concerned” by the “unchecked power, influence and criminality” of Associated Newspapers Limited, which emphatically denies allegations as “stale” and “preposterous.”

Until lunchtime in London on Thursday local time, Sir Elton John’s husband David Furnish was the only claimant consistently in court, after intermittent appearances from co-claimants Prince Harry, Sir Elton, Baroness Doreen Lawrence and Sadie Frost this week.

Prince Harry waves to supporters outside a London court. Picture: Getty Images

The prince, sitting in the second row of the public gallery, listened intently as Mr David Sherborne, the barrister for the six, said the publisher created “paranoid suspicion” by fabricating sources.

The true sources of private information allegedly obtained unlawfully and used to inform newspaper articles were deliberately concealed, Mr Sherborne said.

He claimed journalists at Associated Newspapers Limited would fabricate sources, attribute the information to an insider or someone close to claimants.

“Part of the mischief of this activity is it creates paranoid suspicion that leads people off the scent,” Mr Sherborne told the court, adding the Daily Mail’s was “gaslighting” victims.

Prince Harry is one of several claimants in a lawsuit against Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail. Picture: Getty Images

But in written submissions, Mr Sherborne argued the alleged covert nature of the information garnered, combined with “false” attributions to sources, amounted to “deliberate concealment” of information which would have alerted the claimants that they potentially had a case.

Earlier in the day Mr Justice Nicklin explained an issue he might face when making his judgment on whether the case should go to trial is he is being asked to “draw inference” that if they had made earlier inquiries, they would have uncovered details about unlawful activity alleged to have taken place.

“Doing that at trial is difficult enough, that’s when you have the benefit of having … each of the witnesses cross-examined,” he said.

Elton John’s husband, David Furnish, was also in court. Picture: Getty Images

Mr Sherborne said this reinforced why the publisher’s application is “inappropriate” and “suggestive of a tactical gamble by the defendant to try to avoid, or delay, a full trial, when there are in any event clearly compelling reasons for one”.

“The claimants may have been led off the scent by categorical denials from Associated Newspapers Limited during the Leveson Inquiry that phone hacking took place at its titles,” Mr Sherborne said.

The barrister told the court that it is one reason why the publisher’s request to have the case thrown out is “so unattractive”.

The Duke of Sussex was flanked by security. Picture: Getty Images

Adrian Beltrami, KC for ANL, said he was unaware of seemingly contradictory evidence of a key private investigator in the privacy case Gavin Burrows.

In August 2021, Mr Burrows submitted a statement to the claimant’s lawyers where he appeared to admit to targeting “hundreds, possibly thousands, of people” while working for a journalist at The Mail on Sunday, one of his biggest clients in the early 2000s.

But in a subsequent statement to lawyers for Associated Newspapers Limited earlier this month, he denied that he was ever instructed or commissioned to carry out unlawful activity on the publisher’s behalf.

Prince Harry has been back in London for the hearing. Picture: Getty Images

Mr Beltrami said the second witness statement from Mr Burrows was in response to the claims made by the group, and not his original 2021 statement.

“The private investigator’s first statement only surfaced” on 20 March,” he said.

The judge says: “There’s a slight oddity that when he was asked to provide a statement to the defendant, he didn’t say ‘I provided a statement to the claimants two years ago’.”

The case concludes today but a judgment is expected at a later date.