{"id":96691,"date":"2025-10-02T03:55:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T03:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=96691"},"modified":"2025-10-02T03:55:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T03:55:00","slug":"william-event-may-have-been-target-of-mail-publisher-blagging-harrys-lawyer-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=96691","title":{"rendered":"William event may have been target of Mail publisher blagging, Harry\u2019s lawyer says"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>3 Minute, 22 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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The Prince and Princess of Wales may have been the targets of unlawful information gathering by the Daily Mail\u2019s publisher, lawyers for Prince Harry have told the High Court.<\/p>\n

Details about Prince William\u2019s 21st birthday party in the Mail were potentially \u201cblagged\u201d by a private investigator while Catherine\u2019s mobile phone appeared to have been targeted, a preliminary hearing in Harry\u2019s privacy case against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) has heard.<\/p>\n

Harry is one of several public figures \u2013 including Sir Elton John, Baroness Doreen Lawrence and Elizabeth Hurley \u2013 accusing ANL of \u201cgrave breaches of privacy\u201d.<\/p>\n

ANL has repeatedly denied the \u201clurid\u201d and \u201cpreposterous\u201d\u00a0allegations.<\/p>\n

They include allegations of bugging homes, phone-hacking and dishonestly gathering medical and financial information.<\/p>\n

In written submissions, barrister David Sherborne said it could be \u201cinferred\u201d through an invoice that extensive details in a Daily Mail story ahead of Prince William\u2019s birthday party were \u201cobtained through blagging\u201d \u2013 meaning dishonestly.<\/p>\n

He said the invoice was titled \u2018Out of Africa Story Royal Party Enqs\u2019 and dated August 25 2003, a few months after the prince\u2019s Out of Africa-themed party in June.<\/p>\n

Mr Sherborne added that a separate record allegedly showed a journalist commissioning a private investigator to provide a \u201cmobile phone conversion\u201d related to Catherine and phone numbers from a \u201cfamily and friends\u201d list.<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s hearing saw both sides argue about which allegations should be included in the claim when it goes to trial in early 2026.<\/p>\n

Two of the other claimants, Sir Elton\u2019s husband David Furnish and actress Sadie Frost, were present in court, while Prince Harry appeared to listen to proceedings remotely.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for the Mail\u2019s publisher argued parts of the claim should be thrown out because they involved \u201cgeneral\u201d allegations of unlawful information gathering or related to other newspaper groups.<\/p>\n

Antony White KC said only \u201cspecific instances\u201d should be considered to \u201callow a trial of clearly identified factual issues to take place in a fair and proportionate manner\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIn several instances, it is unclear if the relevant targeting is even said to have been done on behalf of ANL, because the pleading is rolled up with an allegation that the relevant journalist worked at Mirror Group Newspapers and\/or News Group Newspapers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prince Harry has previously settled years-long cases against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) News Group Newspapers (NGN) over alleged unlawful information gathering.<\/p>\n

Mr White said: \u201cUnparticularised general allegations of UIG [unlawful information gathering], particularly where these involve other journalists, or ANL more generally, will not be of assistance to the court in determining the claimants\u2019 individual claims.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Sherborne said the bid to throw out parts of the claim was largely \u201cunreasonably and unfairly late\u201d and should be dismissed.<\/p>\n

The two-day hearing is due to conclude on Thursday, with a decision expected at a later date. The trial is due to take place in January and could last up to nine weeks.<\/p>\n

It\u00a0emerged in 2022\u00a0that the prince and others were taking ANL to court, with some of the allegations dating back decades.<\/p>\n

The publisher failed to get the case thrown out in 2023 by arguing the claims had been brought \u201cfar too late\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for the claimants successfully argued that new evidence had come to light, and they did not know how information was being covertly acquired at the time.<\/p>\n

ANL\u2019s lawyers have staunchly denied the allegations, previously calling the case \u201cwithout foundation\u201d and an \u201caffront\u201d to hard-working journalists whose reputations had been disparaged.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for ANL has previously said it had \u201cdenied under oath that its journalists had commissioned or obtained information derived from phone hacking, phone tapping, bugging, computer or email hacking or burglary to order\u201d.<\/p>\n

The statement added: \u201cThe stories concerned, many of which were published 20 or more years ago, and not subject to any complaint at the time, were the product of responsible journalism based on legitimate sources\u201d.<\/p>\n

This is the latest newspaper publisher against which Harry has brought legal action over information gathering.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"WilliamThe Prince and Princess of Wales may have been the targets of unlawful information gathering by the Daily Mail’s publisher, lawyers for Prince Harry have told the High Court.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1910,10,9,8297,9693],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","category-politics","category-popular","category-prince-harry","category-prince-william"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=96691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96691\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}