In a landmark ruling on Friday, Britain’s High Court in London decided that Prince Harry and other top British claimants will not be allowed to append claims relating to the Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton, to their existing lawsuit against the owner of the Daily Mail.
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex and the younger son of King Charles III, is among seven high-profile individuals – including global music icon Sir Elton John – pursuing legal action against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL). The claim centers around alleged unlawful information-gathering practices by the publisher, which date back over three decades.
The claimants allege ANL, publisher of the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, and MailOnline, has engaged in criminalities such as phone tapping, bugging houses and motor vehicles, and blagging, or obtaining confidential details by trickery. ANL has consistently denied any wrongdoing, describing the allegations as “preposterous smears” and vowing to vigorously defend itself in court.
The group’s lawyers just sought to amend their suit before the trial, which was to begin early next year. They sought to introduce fresh evidence to show that Kate Middleton had been stalked by private detectives hired by Mail reporters. The lawyers argued that this evidence was relevant to the overall case of pervasive privacy intrusions carried out by the media firm.
But Judge Matthew Nicklin rejected the application, stating that the fresh allegations against Kate came too late in the court process to be added. The judge maintained that such afterthoughts threatened to complicate the trial and lead its focus astray from the original extent.
The accusation that the Princess of Wales was being stalked was made too belatedly and cannot legitimately be added at this point,” Judge Nicklin decided.
Other Royal-Related Allegations
In supporting court papers, the claimants also averred, for the first time, that private details regarding Prince William’s 21st birthday bash in 2003 were allegedly obtained by deception. That practice, sometimes referred to as “blagging,” is copying others or impersonating someone in an attempt to acquire confidential data. But this specific accusation wasn’t formally added into the suit and wasn’t included in the judge’s decision.
Aside from that, previously it has come forth by means of other court cases that both Kate Middleton and Prince William were the targets of phone hacking operations by reporters. Prince William allegedly settled privately with Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN), although the terms of the settlement are not disclosed.
Partial Victory for the Publisher
Friday’s ruling also saw ANL succeed on difficult parts of the claimants’ case. Judge Nicklin agreed to strike out some of the charges he deemed were unnecessary, warning that allowing too broad a range of issues threatened to convert the trial into “an uncontrolled and wide-ranging investigation akin to a public inquiry.”.
However, ANL could not exclude all of the contentious elements of the case. The judge dismissed some objections made by the publisher that the claimants were unproperly calling on evidence and conclusions from prior proceedings against other media entities, such as NGN and the Daily Mirror publisher. The prior cases had revealed institutional illegality in the British tabloid press.
Next Steps
One of its sources near the case confirmed that the claimants will seek permission to appeal some parts of the judge’s ruling on excluding the Kate Middleton-related claims. The litigation is one of Prince Harry’s strongest efforts to sue some parts of the British media for breaching their privacy.
ANL declined to comment following the ruling.
This is one of a broader legal fight by Prince Harry against what he perceives as entrenched and deeply invasive conduct on the part of the UK press. The outcome of this trial could have major implications for media accountability and privacy law in the United Kingdom.
