Harry accuses the publisher of the Daily Mirror of using unlawful techniques on an industrial scale to score front-page scoops on his life
Prince Harry stepped into courtroom witness box Tuesday to hold Britain’s tabloid press accountable for its destructive role throughout his life.
But he soon found himself being held to account by a newspaper’s lawyer for how he could blame his anguish on articles he couldn’t remember reading.
The Duke of Sussex became the first senior member of the royal family to testify in over a century as he held a Bible in his right hand and, in a soft voice, swore to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth in the High Court in London.
Harry accuses the publisher of the Daily Mirror of using unlawful techniques on an industrial scale to score front-page scoops on his life.
Sitting in the witness box, dressed in a dark suit and tie, Harry told Mirror Group Newspapers attorney Andrew Green that he had “experienced hostility from the press since I was born.”
The prince accused the tabloids of playing a destructive role in my growing-up.
Harry was forced almost immediately to acknowledge that he wasn’t sure he could recall the 33 specific articles he was complaining about from the thousands he said had been written about him.
Is it realistic, when you have been the subject of so much press intrusion by so many press, both domestic and international, to attribute specific distress to a particular article from 20 years ago, which you may not have seen at the time? Green asked.
“It isn’t a specific article, it is all of the articles, Harry said. Every single article has caused me distress.
The case dates from 1996 to 2011 a period when phone hacking by tabloid journalists was later discovered to be widespread.
It led to later revelations of more intrusive means such as phone tapping, home bugging and obtaining bank and medical records by deception.
Harry said the articles caused him to become depressed and paranoid, distrustful of friends, who he feared were feeding information to the media.
