‘Paranoid’ Prince Harry lost friends over ‘unlawful’ newspaper stories, court hears

Prince Harry suffered from “suspicion and paranoia” and lost friends because of newspaper articles, a court heard on Monday as he launched his campaign to reform the media with a surprise appearance in London.

The Duke of Sussex flew 5,500 miles from his new home in California to attend a High Court hearing as the Daily Mail’s publisher bids to throw out claims against its titles, including phone-hacking.

Also in court were Sir Elton John, Sadie Frost and Baroness Doreen Lawrence, who are among public figures suing Associated Newspapers, alleging unlawful activity. It came as:

• Buckingham Palace says the king won’t meet Harry during his visit

• Sir Elton’s lawyers say his home phone was “tapped”

• Doreen Lawrence feels a “deep sense of betrayal” by the Daily Mail

• Harry made his first appearance in London since the queen’s funeral

The court heard allegations against the publisher include the hiring of private investigators to plant listening devices, the recording of private phone conversations, listening to live landline calls and obtaining medical records.

Associated Newspapers says the claims are “unsubstantiated and highly defamatory, based on no credible evidence” and wants them dismissed without a trial.

Wearing a black suit and blue tie, the duke sat at the back of the courtroom, occasionally jotting in a small black notebook.

His lawyers claim he was “deprived of important aspects of his teenage years” by the “unlawful actions” of Associated Newspapers.

“In particular, suspicion and paranoia was caused by Associated’s publication of the unlawful articles: friends were lost or cut off as a result and everyone became a ‘suspect’, since he was misled by the way that the articles were written into believing that those close to him were the source of this information being provided to Associated’s newspapers,” they argue in a written submission.

They say the actions are “a major betrayal” of promises made by the media after the death of his mother, Princess Diana.

The hearing before Mr Justice Nicklin is due to conclude on Thursday but Buckingham Palace said King Charles was unable to meet his son because of prior commitments including an official state visit to Germany on Wednesday.

Harry’s appearance comes nearly three months after he laid bare his troubled relationship with his father and brother Wales in his controversial autobiography, Spare.

The duke told ITV’s Tom Bradby earlier this year that reforming Britain’s media is now his “life’s work” – a pledge underscored by Monday’s unexpected appearance in court.

Documents filed on behalf of Sir Elton and David Furnish claim the landline phone of their Windsor home was “tapped by private investigators acting on the instruction of Associated.”

Lawyer David Sherborne said the singer’s personal assistant and the gardener were also allegedly targeted and that the publisher “obtained their first child’s birth certificate, before they had even seen a copy themselves.”

Mr Sherborne also made a submission on behalf of Baroness Lawrence, the mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, alleging Associated Newspapers hired private investigators to “unlawfully or illegally” obtain her private information.

He said she feels a “deep sense of betrayal” that his racist murder was “exploited” by the publisher to “generate ‘exclusive’ headlines, sell newspapers and to profit” and she now wonders whether trusting the Daily Mail over its “entirely false” support for her fight for justice.

Associated Newspapers’ lawyers – including Adrian Beltrami, son of legendary criminal solicitor Joe Beltrami – said in written submissions that the claims have been brought too late and are “stale”.

He wrote: “The claimants have failed to show that they have a real prospect of discharging their burden at trial and the court should not hesitate to dismiss these stale claims at an early stage, thereby avoiding what would otherwise be a considerable waste of time, costs and the court’s resources.”

In a separate statement on Monday, Associated Newspapers said it was “profoundly saddened” that Baroness Lawrence had brought a claim against it.

It added that a private investigator at the centre of the cases “has denied their allegations that he acted illegally against them on behalf of the Daily Mail or Mail on Sunday.”