Prince Harry fought back tears on the stand as he finished giving evidence in the phone hacking case after more than seven hours of cross and re-examination, reports claimed. His lawyer David Sherborne concluded Prince Harry’s time in court by asking how the experience had been- of facing such severe scrutiny.
“It’s a lot,” an emotional Prince Harry said after a long pause as he suppressed tears, reports claimed. King Charles’ younger son is among multiple claimants suing Mirror Group Newspapers as he accused journalists from tabloid newspapers The Daily Mirror, The Sunday Mirror and The Sunday People of using illegal methods, including phone hacking, to obtain stories on him at various times 1996 and 2011.
The case involves more than 100 claimants including singer Cheryl Cole, former footballer Ian Wright, actor Ricky Tomlinson and the estate of George Michael.
The lawyer representing MGN told Prince Harry that he was in the real of “total speculation” insisting that there was no actual evidence that the articles he had cited as products of unlawful information gathering were sourced via phone hacking.
“I entirely disagree,” Prince Harry responded while the MGN lawyer said. “This isn’t about you asking me questions, this is me asking you questions.”
Earlier in his testimony, Prince Harry had said that he had an “awful” time on his gap year in Australia because he was followed by press photographers, highlighting an incident where photographers turned up to a deserted beach in Noosa.
“It was a public beach, but not busy or popular, so I’m unclear how anyone had known we were there, to be in the right place at the right time to take photographs,” Prince Harry said in his witness statement.
“I wasn’t aware of anyone taking photographs at the time. The fact that a photographer turned up on a random beach in Noosa – where no other people were – is incredibly suspicious,” he added.
