Prince Harry ordered by judge to explain why messages ‘destroyed’ as he battles publisher of The Sun
Prince Harry has been ordered by a High Court judge to explain how messages between him and the ghostwriter of his memoir, Spare, came to be “destroyed”.
There is a suggestion they may be relevant to his legal action against the publisher of The Sun newspaper, News Group Newspapers (NGN).
Mr Justice Fancourt said the apparent deletion of the duke’s exchanges with John Moehringer on the Signal messaging platform, as well as drafts of Spare prior to its publication, was “not transparently clear”.
He also said there was evidence that a “large number of potentially relevant documents” and “confidential messages” between Harry and his ghostwriter “were destroyed some time between 2021 and 2023, well after this claim was under way”.
He ordered the duke’s lawyers to carry out further searches of his laptop and examine his texts, Whatsapp and Signal messages from 2005 to January last year.
Harry has also been ordered to make an interim payment of £60,000 in legal costs to NGN, as the judge ruled largely in favour of the publisher’s request for a wider search for evidence.
Prince Harry at the Invictus Games Foundation 10th Anniversary Service. Pic Cover Images/AP
Earlier, the prince was accused of creating an “obstacle course” in his legal battle against NGN.
Lawyers for the publisher also claimed the Duke of Sussex had to be dragged “kicking and screaming” into disclosing more than 11,000 emails from a now-closed account.
Anthony Hudson KC, representing NGN, said it appeared that “all documents relating to the writing of Spare [the duke’s memoir] were destroyed before publication and after the commencement of these proceedings”.
Legally, the purpose of disclosure is to ensure all parties are aware of any documents that have a bearing on the case, the government website says.
NGN wants Harry to disclose information that could relate to when he knew he could bring a potential case against the publisher.
NGN also wants to know whether the filing of the prince’s claim, in September 2019, was made within a legal time limit, the court was told.
The publisher is asking Mr Justice Fancourt to order Harry’s current and former solicitors to carry out searches of various communications.
The duke’s legal team accused the publisher of embarking on a “classic fishing expedition” that was “entirely unnecessary and disproportionate”.
Harry, 39, alleges he was targeted by journalists and private investigators working for NGN, which also published the News Of The World, which folded in 2011.
He is one of a number of people bringing cases against the publisher. A full trial of some of those cases is due to be held in January.
NGN has previously denied unlawful activity took place at The Sun.
Pic: AP
Mr Justice Fancourt heard that 11,570 emails from the duke’s now-closed ha@sjpkp.com email account were being reviewed for potential disclosure by his lawyers.
Mr Hudson said: “We’ve had to drag those out of the claimant kicking and screaming,” adding that the disclosure process is “incredibly simple but for the obstacle course created by the claimant”.
“He doesn’t want to have to do this for whatever reason,” Mr Hudson added.
In written arguments, he said conversations Harry had on messaging service Signal with the ghostwriter of Spare, John Moehringer, had been “wiped” before the memoir was published, adding: “It therefore appears that a substantial source of relevant documents in the claimant’s control has been deleted during the currency of these proceedings.”
Mr Hudson continued: “It appears that all documents relating to the writing of Spare were destroyed before publication and after the commencement of these proceedings, a matter which gives rise to real concern as to whether the claimant has complied with his obligation to preserve potentially relevant documents.”
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David Sherborne, representing Harry, said he opposed the publisher’s bid for disclosure, adding that an impression had been given that was “quite wrong”.
He also claimed that NGN had previously deleted “millions of emails” as a way of “hiding incriminating evidence”.
It is the “height of hypocrisy to suggest that obstacles are being put in the way by the claimant who obviously has something to hide”, Mr Sherborne added.
Harry is voluntarily allowing a search of his emails that has taken 150 hours and cost £50,000, the duke’s lawyer said.
In written arguments, Mr Sherborne said Harry had already searched his California home for material, and that he no longer had laptops, mobile phones or data backups from before September 2013.
Harry’s Hotmail email address used before 2014 had been deactivated, he added, while there were “no relevant social media accounts that fall to be searched”.
Royal aides have also been contacted and “have confirmed they do not hold relevant documents”, Mr Sherborne said.
It’s like The Godfather, one reformed drug trafficker tells me.
The mythical gangster film centred on an organised crime dynasty locked in a transfer of power.
Communities in Scotland currently have a front row seat to a new war of violence, torture, and taunts as feuding drug lords and notorious families grapple for control of Glasgow and Edinburgh.
There have been more than a dozen brutal attacks over the past six weeks – ranging from fire bombings to attacks on children and gun violence.
A firebomb attack in Scotland
Victims left for dead, businesses up in flames
Gangsters have filmed themselves setting fire to buildings and homes connected to the associates and relatives of their bitter rivals.
The main aim, they boast, is to “exterminate” the opposition.
The taunting footage, accompanied by the song Keep On Running by The Spencer Davis Group, has been plastered over social media as part of a deliberate game of goading.
A 12-year-old boy and 72-year-old woman were left for dead when teenagers wearing balaclavas burst into a home in north Glasgow.
Garages and businesses have gone up in flames. Shots were fired at an Edinburgh house.
Signals are being sent of who wants control of Scotland’s dark criminal underworld.
A firebomb attack that saw a man throw an incendiary device through a building window
The fire attack set to the song Keep On Running by The Spencer Davis Group
What’s caused the gang war?
The former director of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, Graeme Pearson, explains how a “vacuum of leadership” is playing a part.
Last October, Glasgow-based cocaine kingpin Jamie Stevenson, known as The Iceman, was jailed after orchestrating a £100m cocaine shipment stashed in banana boxes from South America.
The mob leader was one of Britain’s most wanted, running his business like another on-screen criminal enterprise: The Sopranos.
The 59-year-old fugitive went on the run before eventually being hunted and apprehended by police while out jogging in the Netherlands.
Jamie Stevenson. Pic: Police Scotland
Pic: Crown Office
‘Old scores to settle’
But paranoia was running rife about how this notorious gangster could be brought down. Was there a grass? Was it one of their own?
It further fuelled divisions and forced new alliances to be forged across Scotland’s organised criminal networks.
It wasn’t until The Iceman case came to court that it was revealed an encrypted messaging platform, known as EncroChat, had been infiltrated by law enforcement.
It ultimately led to Stevenson pleading guilty.
Ex-senior drug enforcement officer Mr Pearson told Sky News: “It is a complex picture because you have got people who are in prison who still want to have influence outside and look after what was their business.
“On the outside you’ve got wannabes who are coming forward, and they think this is an opportunity for them, and you have got others have old scores to settle that they could not settle when crime bosses were around.”
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Graeme Pearson
Mr Pearson describes a toxic mix swirling to create outbursts of violence unfolding in Scotland.
He concluded: “All that mixes together – and the greed for the money that comes from drugs, and from the kudos that comes from being a ‘main man’, and you end up with competition, violence, and the kind of incidents we have seen over the past four to six weeks.”
New wave of violence ‘barbaric’
Glasgow man Mark Dempster is a former addict, dealer, and drug smuggler who is now an author and respected counsellor helping people quit drinking and drugs.
He describes the “jostle for power” as not a new concept among Glasgow’s high profile gangland families.
Mark Dempster
“There is always going to be someone new who wants to control the markets. It is like The Godfather. There is no difference between Scotland, Albania, or India,” he said.
Mr Dempster suggests a shift in tactics in Glasgow and Edinburgh in recent weeks, with 12-year-olds being viciously attacked in the middle of the night.
“It is barbaric. When young people, children, get pulled into the cross fire. It takes it to a different level.
“At least with the old mafiosa they had an unwritten rule that no children, no other family members. You would deal directly with the main people that were your opposition.”
Police Scotland is racing to get control of the situation, but declined to speak to Sky News about its ongoing operation.
It has been suggested 100 officers are working on this case, with “arrests imminent”.
But this is at the very sharp end of sophisticated criminal empires where the police are not feared, there are fierce vendettas and, clearly, power is up for grabs.
UK
Laws may need to be bolstered to crack down on exploitation of child ‘influencers’, senior MP suggests
Laws may need to be strengthened to crack down on the exploitation of child “influencers”, a senior Labour MP has warned.
Chi Onwurah, chair of the science, technology and innovation committee, said parts of the Online Safety Act – passed in October 2023 – may already be “obsolete or inadequate”.
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Experts have raised concerns that there is a lack of provision in industry laws for children who earn money through brand collaborations on social media when compared to child actors and models.
This has led to some children advertising in their underwear on social media, one expert has claimed.
Those working in more traditional entertainment fields are safeguarded by performance laws, which strictly govern the hours a minor can work, the money they earn and who they are accompanied by.
The Child Influencer Project, which has curated the world’s first industry guidelines for the group, has warned of a “large gap in UK law” which is not sufficiently filled by new online safety legislation.
Official portrait of Chi Onwurah.
Pic: UK Parlimeant
The group’s research found that child influencers could be exposed to as many as 20 different risks of harm, including to dignity, identity, family life, education, and their health and safety.
Ms Onwurah told Sky News there needs to be a “much clearer understanding of the nature of child influencers ‘work’ and the legal and regulatory framework around it”.
She said: “The safety and welfare of children are at the heart of the Online Safety Act and rightly so.
“However, as we know in a number of areas the act may already be obsolete or inadequate due to the lack of foresight and rigour of the last government.”
Victoria Collins, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for science, innovation and technology, agreed that regulations “need to keep pace with the times”, with child influencers on social media “protected in the same way” as child actors or models.
“Liberal Democrats would welcome steps to strengthen the Online Safety Act on this front,” she added.
‘Something has to be done’
MPs warned in 2022 that the government should “urgently address the gap in UK child labour and performance regulation that is leaving child influencers without protection”.
They asked for new laws on working hours and conditions, a mandate for the protection of the child’s earnings, a right to erasure and to bring child labour arrangements under the oversight of local authorities.
However, Dr Francis Rees, the principal investigator for the Child Influencer Project, told Sky News that even after the implementation of the Online Safety Act, “there’s still a lot wanting”.
“Something has to be done to make brands more aware of their own duty of care towards kids in this arena,” she said.
Dr Rees added that achieving performances from children on social media “can involve extremely coercive and disruptive practices”.
“We simply have to do more to protect these children who have very little say or understanding of what is really happening. Most are left without a voice and without a choice.”
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The researcher pointed to one particular instance, in which children were advertising an underwear brand on social media.
She said: “The kids in the company’s own marketing material or their own media campaigns are either pulling up the band of the underwear underneath their clothing, or they’re holding the underwear up while they’re fully clothed.
“But whenever you look at any of the sponsored content produced by families with children – mum, dad, and child are in their underwear.”
Dr Rees said it is “night and day” in terms of how companies are behaving when they have responsibility for the material, versus “the lack of responsibility once they hand it over to parents with kids”.
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