Duke of Sussex court case: key witness statement false

[bluegreygreen]

I looked for another thread on this but didn't see one.

The story is about the case Prince Harry (and 6 others) are bringing against the Daily Mail (Associated Newspapers) for phone hacking. Back in July the claimants were told to reveal any payments that were made to witnesses in exchange for evidence; this seems more serious.

From what I can gather the main witness (Gavin Burrows) in the case was employed by the claimants' team over a couple of years to help research into the phone hacking by different organisations and to track down relevant people. He says he was asked on several occasions if he had worked for the Daily Mail and always denied it, and the first he knew of the current case was when he heard in 2023 that Baroness Lawrence had brought it based on his evidence.

Apparently Burrows wrote a statement at that time (2023) denying the claims and has now written a more detailed statement also denying the claims.

The claimants now don't want to call him as a witness (unsurprisingly) but do want to rely on (some of) his evidence as 'hearsay evidence'.
They also don't want Associated Newspapers to be allowed to call him as a witness.

Telegraph archive link
https://archive.is/YAjNq

I haven't heard before of 'hearsay evidence' being used like this - does anyone know the rules? How can it be tested?

exactly - especially with the drama of an ambulance and police involvement - also there would have been numerous parents there plus Groucho members - many of whom are journalists....

IIRC even the BBC had this story

Antony White, representing ANL, asks about a spokesperson for Frost providing quotes about her relationship with Jude Law.
The article also includes reference to a friend providing quotes. She says she "wouldn't know for sure that would be a friend".

So her own PR briefed the press about her relationship? And she doesn't know whether the "friend" quoted was a friend or no?

Her case seems a bit tenuous ATM

Have the claimants all agreed to appear emotional?

I was wondering that - it said Sadie Frost was tearful taking the stand, befor questioning even started. If it's planned, I don't think it will affect the judge!

It's great publicity.

Many newspapers covered "Harry on the verge of tears" .... but now it's starting to look rehearsed

If it is finally hitting them how tenuous their case is, and that they might be liable for £38m costs... I'd be tearful.

Maybe Meghan gave them all some online coaching, ‘one tear, left eye’. I know I’ve made this joke before but it does amuse me, I am sorry.

Questioning moves to comments Sadie Frost herself provided to the press.
Antony White, representing ANL, pulls up an article published in The Observer on 6 February 2005, where the actress spoke about many aspects of her life including her previous relationships and her experience of post-natal depression.
"I was trying to say nice things after something that had been so horrible throughout my life," she says. "I wasn't saying intimate details."
Although the article included reference to post-natal depression, Frost says she was "trying to be positive".
"[My] post-natal depression was very severe and I was in hospital a lot," she tells the court.
"I was also trying to be helpful to women, there was a big stigma against post-natal depression... I think I was one of first people where so much had happened with it.
"I did speak about it, I was trying to maybe be positive."
Frost says it was her life to speak about and that her friends wouldn't leak her intimate details - adding that they often did not even know the full picture.
She later repeats that she felt there was a price on her head before the "Iris incident" (see 11.08 post), and that "a lot of damage" had been done to her reputation.
Her own comments to the press were a way to "control my own narrative than have the press tell lies", she tells the court.

Has Harry gone home now?

Antony White, representing ANL, asks Sadie Frost about how she selected which of the thousands of articles that had been written about her to complain about in this case.
She tells the court the focus was "on really personal information", allegedly including details from phone calls and medical records.
Referring to her conversations with Jude Law, she says "the calls between me and Jude... I really wanted to concentrate on".
"Phone calls were very, very personal to me and him," she says.
Asked whether the articles were selected for her, Frost says she spent "a lot of time with my lawyer".

@Maidenjourney He was back in the US at the weekend for the premiere of a film he and Meghan were associated with (executive producers).

Thanks @bluegreygreen, Ive just caught up , the questioning from white seems to be focused on friends leaking again! , it seems very likely there is a good reason for this.

I’m also wondering what Jude law was going to say? 🤔

Frost 'shocked and appalled' private medical details obtained 'through doctors'
Antony White moves now to October 2003, when Mail on Sunday journalist Katie Nicholl approached Sadie Frost about a draft article containing details about the actress having had an ectopic pregnancy.
Frost had objected to publication and denied it was true, White says.
The actress tells the court the information in the article, which was never published, was obtained through contacting her doctors.
She's then asked if she could have provided the information herself.
"Oh my goodness, never," Frost says.
She adds that she is "shocked and appalled" she was ever put in that position over her private medical matters at the time.
For context: In 2003, Frost found out she was pregnant and that the pregnancy was ectopic, while she was in a relationship with Jackson Scott. It resulted in her needing an operation at a private hospital.
Frost was going through her divorce from actor Jude Law at the time.
....................................................................................

As a clinician, if that information was obtained 'through doctors', I wonder if she complained at the time.
If she did, if it was leaked by a member of clinical staff that is a very serious breach of professional standards and carries significant penalties.
If leaked by administrative staff, it usually is against terms of contracts and constitutes gross misconduct, normally resulting in dismissal.

ETA draft article containing details about the actress having had an ectopic pregnancy.
...the information in the article, which was never published, was obtained through contacting her doctors.

Just realised - if it was never published, why is she making it public now?

So she’s complaining about a draft article that she was contacted about and was never published after they had her feedback? …odd!

if a friend found out that another friend had given a quote, you'd be cut out of the circle of friends."

However her 2 best friends slept with her husband and they were not cut out the group! her nanny sold her story. They had screaming public arguments that were not private. She wrote a tell all book.
The primrose hill set were famously using drugs/alcohol and bed hopping, more party buddies than 'friends' I doubt they remember half of the excesses during that time. Press hung around outside parties that went on for days.
Door stepping although distasteful is not illegal.
Not to be unkind but they were not that big a deal back in the 90's mostly British indie films. I also seem to remember that the rumours about Law and Kidman (cold mountain) came from frost, she was struggling at the time and blamed kidman for the divorce, she was very vocal about it. Pot & kettle.

Much of the next portion of questioning is focused on a Hacked Off event Sadie Frost co-hosted in 2015, and subsequent communication with its executive director Dr Evan Harris.
Hacked Off is a press reform campaign group supported by actor Hugh Grant after he claimed to be a victim of phone hacking.
An email between her and Dr Harris is shown to the court, where Frost had told him "it's all good news".
She tells the court she can't recall what the good news was, "maybe that the party was a success".
Antony White, representing ANL, then asks Frost whether she was interested in Hacked Off's plans and what they were trying to do.
She says she would have been talking to her lawyer if there was anything she was "seriously considering".
"I wasn't interested at that stage."
Frost says at the time, she wasn't too familiar with what Hacked Off was, but knew its association to Grant and that it was "trying to do good things".

It seems really odd to make this article public when it was never published.

Did she complain to the hospital that her medical records had been compromised? Surely there was an investigation into how that happened? Just like when the nurse at the maternity unit was blagged into releasing information to those Aussie DJ "pranksters".

2003 it would have been possible to see who had accessed her journal - I remember this in the context of the murder of the Swedish Foreign Minister, Anna Lindh, that they tracked several staff who were not on her care team who had accessed her journal

Hacked off again! , co hosted a party for them emailed them , apparently knows nothing about them ! 🙄

@bluegreygreen.. we will need a new thread soon! 🔜 🙏

So many of the claimants seem to have been involved, yet not involved they say, with Hacked Off since 2015 -
SF hosted a party for them in 2015
LH gave them £350,000 in 2015

But both claim not to have have been involved until later - the timeline is starting to look very dodgy with the assertion that they knew nothing before 2019/2020

Not very much I imagine, hence statement accepted but not worth questioning publicly. He has been settled since 2015 they have a very private family life, very professional extended family, that statement would have been very low key.
He was 19 when he met frost, I dont think I would want old partners shit encroaching on my happy life 20 odd years later.

Agree @Lunde - and that's before getting to the dodgy email from 2016!

And here it comes ...

Sadie Frost is shown another email from Dr Evan Harris, executive director of Hacked Off, this time sent on 20 March 2016.
The email shows Harris told Frost she is "in the frame" with other high-profile potential claimants.
Antony White, representing ANL, says the email suggests Harris was proposing to get Frost to instruct lawyers to sue the Daily Mail.
Frost describes "hot air going on around us" and that she "didn't want to hear it", and adds that she only considered advice from her own lawyer at the time.

Now this is interesting

Shows Hacked Off trying to round up claimants and that she knew about this before 2020