Queen ‘approved threatening News International with legal action’
Prince Harry’s legal team have listed 208 articles about him in The Sun and the now-defunct News Of The World which his lawyers claim were as a result of private information being unlawfully gathered.
The stories’ headlines and reporters’ names were included in court documents as part of a legal action by the Duke of Sussex, who is suing the publications’ owners – News Group Newspapers (NGN) – over alleged phone hacking, including listening to private voicemail messages.
NGN is bringing a bid to have Harry’s case thrown out, along with a similar claim by actor Hugh Grant, at a three-day hearing in London which started on Tuesday, arguing they have been brought too late.
Prince Harry pictured at the Royal Courts of Justice in March. Pic: AP
The court documents show:
• A transcript of an alleged intercepted phone message in 2006 from his brother Prince William to Harry claiming to be his former girlfriend Chelsy Davy
• Harry said in a February 2018 email to Buckingham Palace that an apparent lack of response by the newspapers’ publishers – formerly known as News International – over phone hacking claims was making the “institution” [Royal Family] look “ineffective and weak”
• Harry questioned if News International journalists should be allowed “into Windsor” [Castle] for his wedding to Meghan Markle in May 2018 “if it isn’t resolved”
• Harry said “there needs to be an ultimatum otherwise this institution and everything it stands for becomes a laughing stock”
• Another email from the palace said the Queen approved threatening News International with legal action
• The prince’s lawyers claim Harry has “suffered considerable distress, as well as the loss of his dignity or standing, and his personal autonomy, as a result of the misuse of his private information by NGN”
According to the court documents, the first of the 208 articles was published on 6 January 1996 and was headlined “Diana: I’ll take my time Ma’am; Exclusive!”
Harry’s lawyers claim it contained private information about the prince’s “personal life and in particular, his health and details of a skiing accident”.
Also included are articles about his “education and professional life” and “details about his relationship with Chelsy Davy”.
Harry’s former girlfriend Chelsy Davy pictured in 2011
The 208th article listed was published by The Sun on 1 November 2016 and was headlined “Smitten Harry bombarded Meghan with texts until he got a date”.
His lawyers claim the story contained private information concerning his “personal life and in particular the fact that he had ‘inundated’ and ‘besieged’ Ms Markle with text messages and also details of and the frequency of their dates”.
In February 2018, Harry sent an email to the-then palace communications director Sally Osman about the hacking claims against News International
When Ms Osman replied there had been no response, he said the ‘institution’ was looking ‘ineffective and weak’
A month later, Ms Osman emailed to say she had the Queen’s consent to use legal action
In the 2006 William phone message to his brother, a male speaker puts on a female voice, lapsing into normal voice.
The male speaker says: “Hi, it’s Chelsy here. I just want to say I miss you so much, and I think you’re the most – best-looking ginger I’ve ever seen – although you really are quite ugly for a ginger, but hope you’re having a lovely time – I really miss you. It’s lovely out here in Africa, and hopefully I’ll see you very soon, you big, hairy fat ginger. Anyway, speak to you later. Bye.”
According to Harry’s lawyers, the audio transcript of the voicemail was seized from a private investigator’s home.
His legal team claimed around that time there had been a number of suspicious calls from the investigator to Harry’s mobile.
Read more:
Harry’s claim about William settling hacking case is awkward for Royal Family
Harry’s barrister David Sherborne has alleged the duke’s mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, had her calls and messages intercepted by NGN.
He claimed that articles taken from 1994 and 1995 demonstrated that NGN journalists and paparazzi working on their behalf “had inside knowledge” of where Diana was going to be.
And the phone calls of the King and Queen Consort were intercepted by the publisher of The Sun in the 1990s, the prince’s legal team alleges.
Mr Sherborne alleged that NGN was intercepting phone calls and messages, as well as obtaining itemised phone bills of Charles and Camilla.
Articles allegedly published as a result between 1994 and 1995 include stories in The Sun from August 1995 with the headline “Heir to the Phone” and “The Midnight Caller”.
Earlier this week, Harry’s lawyers said Prince William settled a phone hacking claim against Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspaper group in 2020 for a “very large sum”.
NGN has previously settled a number of claims since the phone hacking scandal broke in relation to The News Of The World, which closed in 2011, but has consistently denied that any unlawful information gathering took place at The Sun.
Specialist search teams, police dogs and divers have been dispatched to find two sisters who vanished in Aberdeen three days ago.
Eliza and Henrietta Huszti, both 32, were last seen on CCTV in the city’s Market Street at Victoria Bridge at about 2.12am on Tuesday.
The siblings were captured crossing the bridge and turning right onto a footpath next to the River Dee in the direction of Aberdeen Boat Club.
Henrietta Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Eliza Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Police Scotland has launched a major search and said it is carrying out “extensive inquires” in an effort to find the women.
Chief Inspector Darren Bruce said: “Local officers, led by specialist search advisors, are being assisted by resources including police dogs and our marine unit.”
Aberdeenshire Drone Services told Sky News it has offered to help in the search and is waiting to hear back from Police Scotland.
CCTV of the sisters. Pic: Police Scotland
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The sisters, from Aberdeen city centre, are described as slim with long brown hair.
Police said the Torry side of Victoria Bridge where the sisters were last seen contains many commercial and industrial units, with searches taking place in the vicinity.
The force urged businesses in and around the South Esplanade and Menzies Road area to review CCTV footage recorded in the early hours of Tuesday in case it captured anything of significance.
Drivers with relevant dashcam footage are also urged to come forward.
CI Bruce added: “We are continuing to speak to people who know Eliza and Henrietta and we urge anyone who has seen them or who has any information regarding their whereabouts to please contact 101.”
Glasgow has been a city crying out for solutions to a devastating drugs epidemic that is ravaging people hooked on deadly narcotics.
We have spent time with vulnerable addicts in recent months and witnessed first-hand the dirty, dangerous street corners and back alleys where they would inject their £10 heroin hit, not knowing – or, in many cases, not caring – whether that would be the moment they die.
“Dying would be better than this life,” one man told me.
It was a grim insight into the daily reality of life in the capital of Europe’s drug death crisis.
Scotland has a stubborn addiction to substances spanning generations. Politicians of all persuasions have failed to properly get a grip of the emergency.
But there is a new concept in town.
From Monday, a taxpayer-funded unit is allowing addicts to bring their own heroin and cocaine and inject it while NHS medical teams supervise.
A dirty needle thrown less than 100 metres from the new injection centre
It may be a UK-first but it is a regular feature in some other major European cities that have claimed high success rates in saving lives.
Glasgow has looked on with envy at these other models.
One supermarket car park less than a hundred metres from this new facility is a perfect illustration of the problem. An area littered with dirty needles and paraphernalia. A minefield where one wrong step risks contracting a nasty disease.
Drugs paraphernalia in a supermarket car park in Glasgow, near the new facility
It is estimated hundreds of users inject heroin in public places in Glasgow every week. HIV has been rife.
The new building, which will be open from 9am until 9pm 365 days a year, includes bays where clean needles are provided as part of a persuasive tactic to lure addicts indoors in a controlled environment.
There is a welcome area where people will check in before being invited into one of eight bays. The room is clinical, covered in mirrors, with a row of small medical bins.
Clean needles are provided to lure addicts to inject in a controlled environment
There are eight bays users can inject in
We were shown the aftercare area where users will relax after their hit in the company of housing and social workers.
The idea is controversial and not cheap – £2.3m has been ring-fenced every year.
The aftercare area
Read more: ‘Dying would be better than my £1,000 a month heroin addiction’
Authorities in the city first floated a ‘safer drug consumption room’ in 2016. It failed to get off the ground as the UK Home Office under the Conservatives said they would not allow people to break the law to feed habits.
The usual wrangle between Edinburgh and London continued for years with Downing Street suggesting Scotland could, if it wanted, use its discretion to allow these injecting rooms to go ahead.
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The stalemate ended when Scotland’s most senior prosecutor issued a landmark decision that it would not be in the public interest to arrest those using such a facility.
One expert has told me this new concept is unlikely to lead to an overall reduction in deaths across Scotland. Another described it as an expensive vanity project. Supporters clearly disagree.
The question is what does success look like?
The big test will be if there is a spike in crime around the building and how it will work alongside law enforcement given drug dealers know exactly where to find their clients now.
It is not disputed this is a radical approach – and other cities across Britain will be watching closely.
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