Prince Harry has been ordered by a High Court judge to explain the deletion of messages that might be relevant to his legal case against News Group Newspapers, which published The Sun and News of the World. The company brought a one-day hearing to help access documents, messages, and emails related to Prince Harry’s claim. The prince and over 40 others are suing the company over allegations of unlawful information gathering from private investigators and journalists, with a trial slated to begin in January 2025, although NGN is contesting the claims.
Justice Timothy Fancourt said there was evidence that “a large number of potentially relevant documents” and “confidential messages” between the prince and the ghostwriter of his autobiography Spare “were destroyed some time between 2021 and 2023, well after this claim was under way”. The judge ruled that a wider search was necessary for the prince’s laptop, WhatsApp messages, and texts from 2005 to early 2023.
There are accusations from NGN’s legal team that the prince has resorted to obfuscation. However, Prince Harry’s barrister, David Sherborne, states that the duke had not discussed unlawful information gathering via text or WhatsApp with anyone and that his Signal messages had been deleted.
News Group was awarded two-thirds of its costs, with the Duke of Sussex’s legal team disputing the £132,000 bill, contending that the amount was excessive for a one-day hearing. This ruling follows NGN’s legal team’s request for an order making Harry disclose any information he had that was relevant to what he knew about alleged unlawful behaviour before the end of 2013. NGN proposed that if the prince had knowledge of a possible claim before that date, then the case could be dismissed on the grounds it was filed too late.
Prince Harry’s claim is one of several legal challenges he has taken against sections of the British press. Earlier this year, the duke settled his remaining phone-hacking claims against Mirror Group Newspapers. This related to claims of unlawful intrusion on 115 stories by the group, which had already paid out millions of pounds to phone-hacking victims by News of the World and settled over 1,300 legal complaints. The Sun has stated that it doesn’t accept liability or admit to the claims
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