Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, was cross-examined for the second day the High Court in London. The former senior royal made shocking allegations that the Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) and other British publications destroyed evidence to cover up illegal phone hacking practices.
According to ABC News, the prince sensationally claimed that the British press repeatedly violated his privacy by illegally accessing data on his mobile phone. He stressed his belief that the phone hacking began at The Mirror. When Andrew Green KC, a lawyer for MGN, challenged Prince Harry to prove his allegations, the prince revealed his legal team had advised him that MGN conducted an “industrial scale destruction of evidence.”
Green, said to have an “Eye of Sauron-like focus,” told the court that MGN ethically obtained information from numerous sources. He argued that it was unlikely that MGN would take the risk in light of the 2006 conviction of a News of the World journalist and private investigator for phone hacking.
The lawyer, known as “the Beast,” deftly dismantled Prince Harry’s narrative by highlighting inconsistencies in his account, including his claim that MNG has been hacking his mobile phone since 1996, two years before he owned one. At one point, during Green’s relentless cross-examination, the Harry and Meghan star’s composure wavered, and he said, “My mind’s gone blank for a moment.”
Green told the court that the prince’s allegations were based on speculation and lacked the evidence to back them up. Prince Harry pushed back:
“For my whole life, the press have misled me, have covered up wrongdoing, so to be sitting in court knowing that the defense has the evidence in front of them, and Mr. Green says I’m speculating… I’m not entirely sure what to say about that.”
Despite undergoing a challenging day in court and failing to appear on the first day of the proceedings, Prince Harry’s odds of prevailing are still fair. All his legal team needs to do is establish a single instance of phone hacking to win.
With two weeks remaining for both sides to make their cases, the courtroom drama continues to unfold.