Prince Harry and a group of other individuals are making allegations of phone-tapping and privacy breaches against Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL), the publisher of the Daily Mail newspaper. The case, referred to as the Duke of Sussex v Associated Newspapers Ltd, will take place at the High Court in London and is expected to last four days. Notable figures such as Elizabeth Hurley, Sir Elton John, David Furnish, and Baroness Doreen Lawrence of Clarendon OBE are included in the group litigation, with David Sherborne representing the claimants.
ANL, responsible for publishing the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, and MailOnline, has refuted the accusations, dismissing them as "preposterous smears" and stating that the legal action is a "fishing expedition by [the] claimants and their lawyers." The claimants' allegations include hiring private investigators to place listening devices secretly in people's homes and cars, commissioning individuals to secretly listen and record private phone calls, and paying police officials with corrupt links to private investigators for inside information.
The claimants further allege that ANL impersonated individuals to acquire medical information from private hospitals, clinics, and treatment centers, accessed bank accounts, credit histories, and financial transactions via illicit means, and manipulation. However, the full details of the claims have yet to be made public due to a restriction order made by Lord Justice Leveson, which ANL says the claimants' use of information breaches. As a result, the judge has sealed the claims until that issue has been resolved, which will be part of the public hearing.
The Leveson Inquiry, which investigated the culture, practices, and ethics of the press, is relevant to this case. The inquiry was launched after it was discovered that journalists at News of the World had hacked the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler. During the inquiry, Paul Dacre, editor of the Daily Mail from 1992 to 2018 and now ANL's editor-in-chief, condemned "phone hacking and payments to the police," calling them a "disgrace" that "shocked and shamed us all." ANL has previously denied that any of its journalists have engaged in phone-hacking or bribing police officers.
The Duke of Sussex v Associated Newspapers Ltd is the latest in a series of cases brought against the tabloid press by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex over the last few years. The case alleges phone-tapping and other privacy breaches, and a preliminary hearing will determine whether it will proceed further. Activists, including those from the Hacked Off campaign, have called for the uncompleted second part of the Leveson Inquiry, which was meant to investigate the relationship between journalists and the police, to be reopened, citing cases such as this as evidence that wrongdoing within some newspapers is still taking place.