Prince Harry scheduled to give in-person testimony in his case against the Mirror

It’s honestly funny and terrifying to watch as the British media decides, en masse, to completely ignore a big story involving Prince Harry. For the better part of seven years, Harry’s every utterance, his every move, his every thought is breathlessly reported and misreported in every British tabloid. But when it comes to Harry’s multiple lawsuits against the British tabloids, suddenly the British media has a code of omertà. Well, Harry is part of a class-action lawsuit against the Daily Mirror (or Mirror Group Newspapers, MGN) for their years of phone-hacking back from 1996 through 2011. According to Byline Times, Harry is scheduled to give direct, in-person testimony in the case:

The Duke of Sussex is set to appear before Judge Mr Timothy Fancourt to give his evidence – and face cross-examination by lawyers for Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) – as one of five test cases alleging extensive illegal snooping by its three national tabloids between 1996 and 2011. It covers Morgan’s often controversial editorship of the Daily Mirror between 1995 and 2004 – and his period as de facto ‘editor-in-chief’ of the Sunday Mirror from April 2001 – until his high-profile sacking for being “hoaxed” into publishing fake photos of British troops supposedly abusing Iraqi prisoners of war.

Justice Fancourt, at a preliminary hearing on 8 March, put the Duke’s case in a small group among around 120 current Claimants who would “not settle without having come to court and had their trial and said what they want to,” having seen MGN vacate five previous trial dates by paying out large settlements on the proverbial steps of the court.

Barrister David Sherborne also confirmed that the arrangement for video-link evidence of witnesses in the seven-week trial starting 9 May “certainly doesn’t involve any of the individual claimants,” seemingly assuring a live public appearance from the Duke.

Full details of Harry’s personal case against MGN – a subsidiary of Reach plc and publisher of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People – have yet to enter public record, but they are understood to claim he was targeted from the age of 12 if not earlier.

[From Byline Times]

“…Seemingly assuring a live public appearance from the Duke.” Meaning, Harry will actually have to go to London in May to give testimony and sit for cross-examination?? No wonder his father is evicting him from Frogmore Cottage – King Charles must be utterly panicked and doing the most to keep Harry away from London, away from giving evidence, away from hurting Charles’s partners in crime. It would not surprise me at all if we start seeing a lot of threatening and unhinged stories about Harry’s “security” in next two months.

Byline Times also says that Harry is prepared to talk about how his voicemail messages and phone records were tapped and intercepted as a teenager and young man in his early 20s. Per Byline: “It is also understood the Duke will say MGN journalists unlawfully intercepted voicemails he shared with, among others, his father Prince – now King – Charles, late mother Princess Diana, brother Prince William, ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy, and friend Caroline Flack, whose suicide in 2020 was partly attributed to her struggles with tabloid Press intrusion.”

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Piers Morgan’s social media.