Prince Harry Victim of 'Frankly Appalling' and 'Illegal' Tabloid Tactics

Prince Harry was targeted with "the most intrusive" and "blatantly unlawful" tabloid newsgathering tactics after Princess Diana's death, his lawyer told the High Court.

The Duke of Sussex is suing Mirror Group Newspapers on historic allegations of phone hacking between 1995 and 2011. The publisher denies phone hacking.

The Daily Mirror and the Sunday Mirror are among the publisher's newspapers put on trial by the royal in a civil case at the Royal Courts of Justice, in London.

David Sherborne, Harry's attorney, told the court: "At the time, the Duke of Sussex was just a 12-year-old boy and we all remember the images of him walking behind his mother's coffin.

"From that moment on, as a school boy, through a career in the army and then setting out as a young adult he was subjected to the most intrusive methods of obtaining his personal information."

"Prince or not," Sherborne added. "The blatantly unlawful and illegal methods that were secretly used by the defendant to be able to get every little piece of information about his life away from his royal duties and sometimes publish it was quite frankly appalling. No one should be subjected to that."

Sherborne told the court Harry was bringing his claim in part because his own experiences were also shared by many less prominent people than him who were of interest to the press.

"At the start of the period we're concerned with, which is 1995," he continued. "The royal family had become big news for the tabloid newspapers.

"In particular, curiosity about Diana, the late Princess of Wales, his mother, and her separation from His Royal Highness Prince Charles was enormous.

"Their divorce followed shortly after in 1996 and then was tragically followed in August 1997 by the untimely death of Diana."

Harry's claims end in 2011, which is also the same year Prince William and Kate Middleton got married as well as being five years after the first criminal prosecution for phone hacking at the News of the World, owned by a different publisher, News Group Newspapers. News Group (since rebranded News UK) closed the Sunday paper that year.

Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson was handed an 18-month jail sentence in 2014 following a high-profile trial which also saw the acquittal of Rebekah Brooks, current chief executive of News UK.

The company had paid out in excess of £1 billion ($1.4 billion) by 2021, according to the industry publication Press Gazette.

There was, according to Sherborne, "a flood of illegality" at the Mirror Group approved by executives in the company and among senior figures named, he added that: "Piers Morgan, the newspaper's editor-in-chief, was also close to the board and attended its meetings."

Morgan is a prominent critic of Harry and Meghan Markle, who regularly accuses them of hypocrisy and smearing the royal family.

The Talk TV presenter has previously denied phone hacking and at one stage told The Guardian: "I've never hacked a phone nor told anybody to hack a phone."

Harry's allegations were fleshed out during the opening of a trial slated to last six or seven weeks in one of three lawsuits he has filed alleging historic phone hacking at some of Britain's biggest newspaper publishers.

Separately, he is also suing News Group Newspapers, owned by Rupert Murdoch, and the Daily Mail Group, owned by Associated Newspapers.

The trial continues.

Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.

Update 05/10/23, 9:09 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.