LONDON (Reuters) – Prince Harry began giving evidence on Tuesday at the High Court in London in his lawsuit against the publisher of British tabloid the Daily Mirror, which he accuses of phone-hacking and other unlawful acts.
Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), the publisher of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People, has previously admitted its titles were involved in phone-hacking, but said there was no evidence that Harry had ever been a victim.
Below are quotes and highlights from the courtroom where Harry is due to face hours of cross-examination in the witness box on Tuesday and Wednesday:
LIFE WASTED ON PARANOIA
Harry said in his witness statement: “It’s only now, realising what the defendant’s (MGN’s) journalists were doing, and how they were getting their information, that I can see how much of my life was wasted on this paranoia.
“I’ve always heard people refer to my mother as paranoid, but she wasn’t. She was fearful of what was actually happening to her and now I know that I was the same.”
‘UTTERLY VILE’ BEHAVIOUR
“In my experience as a member of the Royal Family, each of us gets cast into a specific role by the tabloid press,” Harry wrote in his written statement.
“It was a downward spiral, whereby the tabloids would constantly try and coax me, a ‘damaged’ young man, into doing something stupid that would make a good story and sell lots of newspapers. Looking back on it now, such behaviour on their part is utterly vile.”
‘TOTAL SPECULATION’
Andrew Green, MGN’s lawyer, suggested to Harry that his allegation that an article about him breaking his thumb as a teenager was the result of phone hacking or other unlawful information gathering was “in the realms of total speculation”.
Harry said “that kind of stuff instills a kind of paranoia for a young man at school where he has to go to the medical centre and can’t now trust the doctors”.
‘IRONIC’ SECURITY ARRANGEMENTS
“I have never been the named account holder for any mobile that I have had and have almost never received a phone bill,” Harry wrote in his witness statement.
“As far as I was aware, this was all dealt with by the Institution, presumably for security purposes although that now seems rather ironic.”
BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS?
Harry was asked about a passage in his witness statement on the British press, in which he said: “How much more blood will stain their typing fingers before someone can put a stop to this madness?”
Asked if the MGN journalists who wrote the articles at the centre of his lawsuit had “blood on their hands”, he replied: “Some of the editors and journalists that are responsible for causing a lot of pain, upset and in some cases – perhaps inadvertently – death.”
STATE OF PRESS AND GOVERNMENT AT ROCK BOTTOM
“On a national level as, at the moment, our country is judged globally by the state of our press and our government – both of which I believe are at rock bottom,” Harry said in a written witness statement.
“I may not have a role within the Institution but, as a member of the British Royal family, and as a soldier upholding important values, I feel there’s a responsibility to expose this criminal activity in the name of public interest.”
GIRLFRIENDS
“At no point did I have a girlfriend or a relationship with anyone without the tabloids getting involved and ultimately trying to ruin it using whatever unlawful means at their disposal,” Harry wrote in his witness statement.
ON PIERS MORGAN
Harry added in the witness statement: “The thought of Piers Morgan and his band of journalists earwigging into my mother’s private and sensitive messages (in the same way as they have me) and then having given her a ‘nightmare time’ three months prior to her death in Paris, makes me feel physically sick and even more determined to hold those responsible, including Mr Morgan, accountable for their vile and entirely unjustified behaviour.”
“Unfortunately, as a consequence of me bringing my Mirror Group claim, both myself and my wife have been subjected to a barrage of horrific personal attacks and intimidation from Piers Morgan … presumably in retaliation and in the hope that I will back down.”
Morgan, the Mirror’s former editor and now a high-profile broadcaster, has denied any involvement in unlawful behaviour.
(Reporting by Michael Holden, Sam Tobin and Sachin Ravikumar; Editing by Kate Holton)
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