Prince Harry is 'turning High Court case into public inquiry'

Prince Harry was yesterday accused of turning his High Court case against The Sun's publisher into a 'public inquiry' as he faces four days in the witness box.

The Duke of Sussex will return to Britain in the New Year to give evidence in the eight-week trial.

He faces a large legal bill even if he wins, having suggested he has turned down offers to settle the case out of court. 

The actor Hugh Grant, who was a co-claimant in the case, settled for 'an enormous sum' earlier this year, saying otherwise he would face £10million in legal costs. 

At the time, Harry's barrister said the duke faced the same 'impossible' pressures and could also be 'forced' to settle.

But last week, Harry committed in a public interview to 'seeing this through', even if the amount he wins in court is 'a hundred times' less than his settlement offer.

The publisher, News Group Newspapers (NGN), denies any wrongdoing. Its KC, Anthony Hudson, accused the duke of doing something 'that is not legitimate'. 

Harry and his sole remaining co-claimant Tom Watson, the former Labour deputy leader, allege journalists from The Sun and the defunct News of the World unlawfully obtained their private information.

Mr Hudson told a pre-trial hearing yesterday: 'This is not about the trial of these individual claims, certainly not the duke's. It is about something very different. It's almost by definition a public inquiry. That's what he's trying to achieve. We say that is not legitimate.'

He handed the judge a transcript of the interview Prince Harry gave last week in New York in which he declared his goal was achieving 'accountability' rather than settling his case. Harry told an audience: 'One of the main reasons for seeing this through is accountability, because I'm the last person that can actually achieve that.'

Mr Hudson told Mr Justice Fancourt: 'It shows what's really going on here. We say the answer is to focus on the issues in the duke's claim. 

It is critical that that happens, so that my client is able to have any semblance of a fair trial.' 

David Sherborne, for Harry and Lord Watson, is due to respond to these specific points in submissions on Tuesday, but he claimed on Monday that NGN was guilty of unlawful activity and its position was 'a transparent attempt to avoid evidence of systemic unlawful activity'.

Dealing with the timetable for the trial, the judge was told that Harry faces between two and four days in the witness box being cross-examined by the newspaper group's barrister.

It will be the duke's second courtroom encounter, after he gave evidence in 2023 before the same judge as he sued Mirror Group Newspapers alleging phone hacking.

After winning that case, Harry declared himself a 'dragon slayer' and vowed to continue his crusade against the Press.

In the new trial, the duke will be quizzed over his claims that NGN newspapers used unlawful techniques to find out information about him.

He alleges breaches of his privacy over at least 30 articles written about him, including the day he found out he had been accepted to Eton in 1998.

Some 39 other claimants including Hugh Grant who had joined Harry in the current tranche of the managed group action have settled out of court, with only the duke and Lord Watson still pursuing the case.

In the early stages of his case, Mr Justice Fancourt threw out Harry's claims of phone hacking, last year, because the duke had waited too long before starting his legal case. Harry had protested that a Buckingham Palace 'secret agreement' had prevented him from bringing his case any sooner, but the judge ruled that such a deal was 'implausible', and rejected Harry's bid to use it as the reason for his late claim.

Then, two months ago, his claims of 'bugging' and 'tracking' devices being planted by The Sun were thrown out too. Mr Justice Fancourt said Harry had provided 'no particulars whatsoever' to back up these assertions against the newspaper.

The duke proceeds to the trial on the basis of other types of unlawful information gathering which he alleges. He will be the main witness in his case, with one other person - not identified - also giving evidence to support his specific case, the court heard.

The newspaper has some 65 witnesses lined up - including the News of the World's infamous 'fake sheikh' Mazher Mahmood, the court was told.

Harry rarely visits the UK, since quitting his royal duties to move to America in 2020. He was last here in September for the Well Child charity awards. He claims his safety is at risk when he visits Britain because the Home Office stripped him of his automatic police protection. He is still suing the Home Office over this complaint. Having lost his High Court bid to have his police bodyguards restored, in April he will be asking the Court of Appeal to overturn the ruling.

In his interview last week, Harry said: 'I never should have had security removed in the first place. It's amazing, when you go through this litigation - which I have become a professional at.'

The court has not yet set any date for Harry's days in the witness box.