Duke of Sussex & Others v ANL: thread 2

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This is a continuation of the discussion on the previous thread:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/the_royal_family/5443044-duke-of-sussex-court-case-key-witness-statement-false?page=1

We are following the court case on the

I'll check in periodically and post anything I see

The D’s witnesses need to be cross examined. You can’t get an idea of how a case is going until both sides have been cross examined.

Ive just come on to say the same! , checked and nothing since yesterday, not even an update to say who is next and what day, perhaps it’s not happening today?

It's a bit odd.

Might be a non court day - although last week the Judge admonished Sherborne to have his witnesses ready to go at short notice because the judge was peeved about the waste of court time on Friday.

I'm wondering whether there is some behind the scenes activity.
Sherborne trying to settle because of the car crash witnesses so far?
Or ANL making an application to have the cases struck out because of the timeline shifting shenanigans?

Possibly but it would be nice for them to give us a heads up either way , don’t know about you but having to continually check is irritating, just a note saying not today or later would make the difference.

Not necessarily.

The plaintiffs have to prove that they had absolutely no knowledge prior to the fixed date (IIRC it is October 2016?) - but all of the activity, meetings and e-mails from 2015 and early 2016 undermine this position.

There is also the problem of the e-mails discussing use of the Byline Times to create a false timeline - this could be fraud (which is, I think, why the Judge warned SH about self-incrimination) - as a lawyer and trained Barrister SH should have been aware of this.

If it is a behind the scenes issue the journalists may not be aware what is going on.

Edited to add - it sounds less like a non court day as that was included on the court summary last Friday

Another possibility is that the next witness is refusing to testify - I think it is starting to dawn on some Sherborne witnesses that there are certain dodgy aspects of the case

The other thing I thought of is that there were some comments yesterday that EJ and DF were giving evidence by video link - if they are in a different timezone perhaps it's a later start?

Could be that ! , have we been given a list and timeline of who is left to testify?
is it only EJ , DF and DL left ?
sorry I’m not assuming you know either just musing out loud! 🤔

I think Simon Hughes has inexplicably placed himself in some potential jeopardy here.

He, to date, still has his good reputation, a nice retirement, and his senior position in the Church of England. He’s 74, a former barrister, MP and government minister. Why is he risking this?

I wonder if he was persuaded to place himself in this unenviable position by his former Lib Dem colleagues with the Hacked Off connections? I don’t think he’s driven by the acquisition of money. This could be a genuine personal and/or moral crusade. Or he knows that the claimants DO have concrete evidence to be put to the respondents’ witnesses in the fullness of time.

(I’m also mindful that the Lib Dems particularly loathe the Mail because of its uncompromising stance on a couple of controversial social issues.)

Doreen Lawrence I think may simply have been slickly hoodwinked, though I guess we’ll see.

I have managed to wade through the uk gov court website and have found we were due to start at 10.30 today

But is doesn't say who - just lists all 7 claimants

https://www.court-tribunal-hearings.service.gov.uk/kings-bench-division-daily-cause-list?artefactId=5fba357d-269a-4e48-a0dd-c84629e2d761

Lots of coverage about Kate Moss in the DM this week.

Interesting @Lunde! , I have read that and it’s not very clear is it , according to that , starting at 10.30 for all witnesses named one after another! , at first I thought aha DL listed so perhaps she doesn’t want to testify but then I saw that all of them are named separately for 10.30 start! 🤷‍♀️

I think it is probably because they are bringing separate claims but they are being heard jointly using a lot of the same evidence. So the listing states the case(s) being heard not the actual individual witnesses to be heard that day iyswim

Are they all listed on other days?

You would think sky/BBC would flag that there is no news, because that is news in itself.

I can only find today's listing at the moment

Usually Sky flags non-court days but there has been nothing yesterday or today.

I would like to have been a fly on the wall of the claimants WhatsApp group last night - surely it must be dawning on some of them that others (LH, SF, SH at least) had been planning and involved in this for years before they were shown the disputed dossier

Ah that makes sense!

Interestingly, it seems Evan Harris was due to be giving evidence today. I've seen a Press Association advisory that suggests they were supposed to be covering it.
No update, though. Curiouser and curiouser.

How very intriguing

Are costs at this point fixed? Or would money be saved by stopping today?

Not a huge amount of money to be saved at this stage if anything at all. Counsel will be on brief and will need to be paid regardless.

Maybe he thought twice about committing perjury.

The suspense is killing me. I was looking forward to the Elton John zoom testimony.

This is very interesting. I wonder if he has been advised not to give evidence for legal reasons after the e-mails revealed in SH's cross examination about the deliberate manipulation of the timeline

SH is also a terrible hypocrite. Although the Sun outed him as gay - he fought an incredibly homophobic campaign to get into parliament against Peter Tatchell in 1983 - attacking Tatchell for being gay. The Liberal campaign leaflet described the election as "a straight choice" between Simon Hughes and the Labour candidate - despite 16 candidates.....