Prince Harry Accused of 'Deliberately' Destroying Potential Evidence in Phone Hacking Trial
Attorney Anthony Hudson claimed that Harry had deliberately destroyed text messages with the ghostwriter who penned his explosive memoir.
Jun. 28 2024, Published 3:00 a.m. ET
Prince Harry is continuing his battle against the British press, as The Sun's legal team has accused the Duke of Sussex of tampering with evidence.
Attorney Anthony Hudson claimed Harry was “deliberately destroying” valuable information that could be used in the High Court. However, the duke's legal team branded the accusation as a “classic fishing expedition.”
Prince Harry accused 'The Sun' of phone hacking.
“NGN’s tactical and sluggish approach to disclosure wholly undermines the deliberately sensational assertion that the claimant [Harry] has not properly carried out the disclosure exercise,” Harry’s attorney David Sherborne said in court documents.
“This is untrue," Sherborne continued. "In fact, the claimant has already made clear that he has conducted extensive searches, going above and beyond his obligations.”
The Sun's legal team accused Prince Harry of tampering with evidence.
Hudson argued that the veteran created an “obstacle course” with documents the publisher wanted to use in the case.
“If the claimant wanted his documents from his former solicitors’ or from the royal household … he would have got them,” Harry's legal rep noted.
On Thursday, June 27, Justice Timothy Fancourt said it was “troubling” that the papers had disappeared after the case began.
Prince Harry and NGN's trial is in 2025.
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OK! previously reported Harry scored a small legal win in April after the High Court rejected News Group Newspapers' application to delay the trial. Harry and several other British celebrities accused NGN of phone hacking and other unethical journalistic practices.
“I consider there are too few advantages at this stage to abandoning the orderly preparation of a trial on all issues to instead have a trial on only one issue,” Fancourt said.
Prince Harry celebrated a legal win in his case against the Mirror Group.
According to Fancourt, the January 2025 trial date was scheduled in November 2022, making it too late for NGN to change it.
“It would be quite a serious thing to overturn at such a late stage,” Fancourt shared, pointing out that all existing parties had “been working for years” on the case.
The judge said the preparation had been done “at considerable expense,” and there were "too few advantages to abandoning the orderly preparation" for the 2025 trial.
Aside from the hearing, Fancourt ruled in Harry's favor in his lawsuit against the Mirror Group in 2023 after Harry claimed the organization invaded his privacy.
"Today is a great day for truth as well as accountability," Harry said in a statement.
"I'd like to thank my legal team for so successfully dismantling the sworn testimony of Mirror Group Newspaper's senior executives, legal department and journalists who at least turned up to Court, unlike their colleagues, who were perhaps too afraid to do so," he penned.
The Mirror Group accepted Fancourt's choice.
"We welcome today's judgment that gives the business the necessary clarity to move forward from events that took place many years ago," the Mirror Group said. "Where historical wrongdoing took place, we apologize unreservedly, have taken full responsibility and paid appropriate compensation."
New York Post reported on the court proceedings.