Prince Harry looks set for a courtroom battle with The Daily Mail newspaper’s publisher in the UK.
The British royal’s damages claim over allegations of unlawful information gathering can go ahead to trial, a High Court judge ruled Friday.
As the BBC reports, Prince Harry is among a group of high-profile individuals, including Sir Elton John, David Furnish, Sadie Frost, Liz Hurley, and Sir Simon Hughes, who have brought legal action against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL). The group has accused the publisher of multiple “gross breaches of privacy” such as hiring private investigators to place listening devices inside cars, listening into phone calls, and dishonestly obtaining medical and financial information.
Associated Newspapers has denied all the allegations. At hearings in March, its lawyers argued that the claims — which date as far back as 1993 — were brought “far too late,” The Guardian reported. The newspaper added that David Sherborne, representing Prince Harry and others, said Associated Newspapers’s attempt to have the claims dismissed was as “ambitious as it is unattractive” and that members of the group each had a “compelling case.”
In a ruling today, Justice Nicklin said Associated Newspapers had “not been able to deliver a knockout blow to the claims of any of these claimants.”
Today’s ruling likely means Prince Harry will give another in-person court appearance following his showing in court in June for a separate phone hacking case against Mirror Group Newspapers. That court appearance was the first time a senior royal was cross-examined in court since the 19th century.
