The Telegraph:
A tabloid story that Prince Harry alleged was obtained unlawfully came from an interview he gave himself to mark his 18th birthday, High Court documents suggest.
The Duke of Sussex is suing the publisher of the Daily Mirror, claiming he was the victim of unlawful information gathering, including phone hacking.
He put forward 140 articles published in the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror and The People between 1996 and 2010, which he alleged were obtained through illegal means.
Of those, 33 have been selected as a sample on which to base his case.
On the shortlist is a story published on September 16, 2002, with the headline, “No Eton Trifles for Harry, 18”.
Interview set up by PR teamMirror Group Newspapers (MGN) argues that the information came from an interview given by the Duke to the Press Association news agency to mark his 18th birthday the previous day.
The publisher suggested in court documents that the interview was arranged by the Duke’s PR advisers as part of an exercise to rehabilitate his image, following his earlier involvement with drug taking.
It was released to the media under embargo to run on September 15, and different versions were published in most newspapers.
A further article, published by the Press Association on that Sunday, the Duke’s birthday, stated that he would be spending the day at Highgrove, his father’s Gloucestershire home.
Later that evening, a picture agency filed an image of the Duke “entering Highgrove on his 18th birthday, driven by his friend, Guy Pelly”.
The 161-word article, published in the Daily Mirror on Monday, September 16, “simply repeated the details that the claimant had given: that he would be having no party, that he would be spending the day with his brother and father, and that his uncle gave him golf clubs”, MGN has argued.
It added: “There are no proximate invoices. There is no evidence of voicemail interception.”
In the interview, the Duke said of his birthday plans: “I’m not having a party or anything. It will be a quiet day at home with my father and my brother - my family.”
He also disclosed that Earl Spencer had given him some golf clubs, adding: “I’m not obsessed by golf. I play it occasionally, but I don’t want to play it professionally.”
The interview came after Prince Harry admitted smoking cannabis and drinking to excess, saying: “That was a mistake and I learned my lesson.”
Among the other articles that the Duke will rely on during the seven-week trial is a story published in the Daily Mirror on Monday, September 16, 1996, which suggested the late Diana, Princess of Wales looked “sad and upset” after a brief 20-minute visit to see Prince Harry at Ludgrove school, Berks, to mark his 12th birthday.
It added that Prince Charles had spent most of Saturday afternoon with Harry, who was “taking the royal divorce badly” and was also distressed over the ill-health of Paddy Whiteland, the former Royal gardener.
MGN said the fact that the late Princess was visiting her son had been confirmed publicly by her spokesperson, while members of the public had seen her.
It argued that the Duke had no reasonable expectation of privacy in respect of the information that he was thought to be taking the divorce “badly” because his mother had spoken publicly about his reaction in her now-infamous 1995 interview with Panorama.
Her comments regarding her sons’ reaction to the breakdown of her marriage were also reported in two stories published by the Press Association during the previous month, while Harry’s close relationship with Mr Whiteland was “well documented”, as was the man’s illness, MGN said.
A third story, published on November 11, 2000, revealed that the Duke had broken his thumb.
MGN said that information had been placed in the public domain by the Palace and had been reported by several newspapers the previous day.
The story also appeared on BBC Online the previous day, and included quotes from a spokeswoman from St James’s Palace, the publisher added.
Among the other articles that the Duke will seek to prove were obtained through illegal means is one in 2002 about his drug-taking, which initially appeared in the first edition of that day’s News of the World, and another story suggesting he might leave his gap-year placement in Australia in 2003 due to media attention.
The latter came from “statements to the press by Clarence House” that were also widely reported in other newspapers that day, MGN said.
David Sherborne, the Duke’s barrister, told the High Court on Thursday that unlawful information gathering was authorised “at the highest levels” at MGN.
He said: “We say the case goes higher than just the journalists.
“The condoning of these activities meant these journalists were able to continue them at this widespread level.
“At all levels, the defendant’s organisation was concealing unlawful activity because it was well aware of how damaging it was.”
Mr Sherborne said it was “inconceivable” that the information regarding unlawful information gathering was not known by the editors, including Piers Morgan, as well as the legal department and the board.
Coronation Street actors Nikki Sanderson and Michael Turner, known professionally as Michael Le Vell, and comedian Paul Whitehouse’s ex-wife Fiona Wightman are named alongside the Duke as “representative” cases in the trial.
MGN said there was “no evidence, or no sufficient evidence, of voicemail interception in any of these four claims”.