Summary

  • Prince Harry is being cross-examined at the High Court, as part of his case against the publisher of the Daily Mirror

  • He claims reporters started listening to his answerphone messages while he was a teenager at Eton school

  • And he alleges tabloid stories about him could only have been uncovered by phone hacking

  • But the Mirror's lawyer says legitimate sources were behind many of the stories - and others were already in the public domain

  • In a written witness statement, Prince Harry accuses former Mirror editor Piers Morgan of "horrific personal attacks"

  • He says the alleged attacks are "presumably in retaliation and in the hope that I will back down"

  • Towards the end of his statement, Harry also claims the press - and the UK government - are at "rock bottom"

  • You can watch BBC analysis, plus shots from outside court, by pressing play above

  1. Join us for more tomorrowpublished at 18:16 British Summer Time 6 June 2023

    Dulcie Lee
    Live reporter

    We're bringing your live coverage to a close - but we've still got plenty for you:

    • Catch up with the day in our main story here
    • Read the key extracts from the prince's witness statement here
    • Sign up for insider views on this and more with our BBC's Royal Watch newsletter here

    Updates were brought to you by Imogen James and Jasmine Andersson, with Jemma Crew, Dominic Casciani, Tom Symonds and Sean Coughlan reporting from court.

    The page was edited by Owen Amos and me.

    Prince Harry is due back in court tomorrow morning - see you then.

  2. What happened today?published at 18:09 British Summer Time 6 June 2023

    As the media pack up their cameras and head home, let's recap what we learned on Prince Harry's first day being cross-examined in court:

    • Prince Harry accused Mirror Group Newspapers of hacking his voicemails when he was a teenager, saying it made him feel he "couldn't trust anybody"
    • He said he has "experienced hostility from the press" since he was born
    • Prince Harry said editors and journalists from the newspaper group were responsible for “causing pain and upset” and “inadvertently death”
    • He said he developed "acute paranoia" of being under surveillance
    • The Mirror group's lawyer said he had sympathy for the duke, but denied journalists' actions were "all unlawful"

    Read our full story here.

  3. Analysis

    No smoking gun... but that's by no means fatal for Harrypublished at 17:59 British Summer Time 6 June 2023

    Dominic Casciani
    Legal correspondent, reporting from court

    Prince Harry came to court on Tuesday morning with a simple mission: The onus was on him to prove his case.

    But where is the smoking gun? Where is the repentant tabloid reporter admitting he targeted him?

    The Mirror Group today repeatedly argued that stories had come from a variety of legitimate sources, and sought to expose the Duke's theories as wild.

    But, the publisher also knows the Duke's case benefits from the fact that it has admitted large-scale unlawful information gathering in the past.

    So Prince Harry has been repeatedly pointing out compelling similarities to the earlier cases which his lawyers want the judge to note: The same mystery missed calls or voice messages, the same journalists making the same payments to private investigators.

    Tomorrow we get into the final batch of stories, many of which will continue to touch on the intrusion he says so damaged his life and those around him.

  4. Attributing information to a 'friend' is hallmark of hacking - Harrypublished at 17:34 British Summer Time 6 June 2023

    Jemma Crew
    Reporting from court

    Before we pack up for the day, it's worth revisiting one exchange in court from earlier.

    The lawyer for Mirror Group Newspapers, Andrew Green, asked Prince Harry about a story in the Mirror in 2005, which claimed Chelsy Davy was going to "dump him" amid speculation he'd flirted with a mystery brunette at a party.

    Green put it to the prince that there was “nothing unlawful” about the journalist who wrote the piece speaking to people at the party.

    He replied: “No, if that’s what she did.”

    Green told the court that a quote in the story was attributed to “a pal”, but it had been revealed that the source was Davy’s uncle.

    In reply, Prince Harry called it “convenient” to attribute the source to someone like that.

    He said that attributing information to a pal or a friend “is a particular hallmark of phone hacking”, adding: “It is what I would do if I was doing something illegal.”

  5. Five key points from Harry’s witness statementpublished at 17:12 British Summer Time 6 June 2023

    Prince Harry's 49-page witness statement was published just as he began giving evidence in court this morning.

    We've spent the day poring through it - here are some of the key bits:

    • He accuses Piers Morgan of intimidation, saying as a consequence of bringing this claim, he and his wife have been subject to “horrific personal attacks”
    • Knowing journalists from Mirror Group Newspapers were listening to his voicemails created a “huge amount of paranoia”, he says
    • The prince alleges that the tabloid press cast members of the Royal Family into specific roles, with him being cast as a "thicko", "cheat" and "underage drinker"
    • Prince Harry says rumours James Hewitt was his biological father were “hurtful, mean and cruel”
    • He says the press and UK government are at “rock bottom”, and accuses the media of getting into bed with the government.

    Read our article in full here.

  6. Prince Harry leaves courtpublished at 16:53 British Summer Time 6 June 2023
    Breaking

    Prince HarryImage source, Reuters

    Prince Harry has walked out of the High Court and is getting into a black Land Rover, following a long day of cross-examination.

    He'll be back tomorrow morning for his second day giving evidence.

    Watch him leaving court below:

    Media caption,

    Prince Harry leaves the court building following his first day of giving evidence

  7. Harry told not to discuss evidence as court ends for the daypublished at 16:40 British Summer Time 6 June 2023

    And that's it for today - the session at the High Court has drawn to a close.

    Just before it ended, Prince Harry was told not to discuss his evidence with anyone.

  8. Phone data shows brief but aborted call - Harrypublished at 16:36 British Summer Time 6 June 2023

    Dominic Casciani
    Legal correspondent, reporting from court

    The trial moves to two stories in 2005, concerning Prince Harry's long-regretted appearance at a fancy dress party in a Nazi uniform.

    The Mirror's claimed Chelsy Davy was going to "dump him" amid speculation he'd flirted with a mystery brunette at the same party.

    One article says Chelsy was “furious” and had given her boyfriend a “tongue-lashing down the phone”.

    Daily Mirror articleImage source, Crown

    "The article also reports that Chelsy had phoned me 'at my father’s Highgrove home'," says the prince in his statement.

    "The details about our telephone communications are not attributed to anyone, so how could the defendant’s journalists know about this?"

    Prince Harry says two days before the story went out, call data shows someone at the Mirror Group made brief but aborted calls to his friend Guy Pelly, in circumstances that looked like an attempt to access his voicemail.

  9. Chelsy's uncle behind stories, suggests Mirror lawyerpublished at 16:14 British Summer Time 6 June 2023

    Dominic Casciani
    Legal correspondent, reporting from court

    Mirror group lawyer Andrew Green says that Prince Harry's trip to meet Chelsy Davy's family was already well-known across the media.

    He says the Mail on Sunday had already named and pictured the resort the day before.

    Prince Harry says he was not surprised because journalists had checked into the hotel before he arrived.

    The prince says that the article is suggestive of investigators "blagging" information about flights - meaning conning the details out of people who legitimately hold them.

    But Green suggests the information came from Davy's uncle. Prince Harry says that it was highly unlikely the uncle would have known the flight plans.

  10. Harry asks how Chelsy flight plans were revealedpublished at 16:08 British Summer Time 6 June 2023

    Dominic Casciani
    Legal correspondent, reporting from court

    We're now on to Prince Harry's relationship with Chelsy Davy, his first long-term relationship.

    In December 2004, the Daily Mirror reported that he was meeting her father on a holiday on a small island off Mozambique.

    The article includes pictures of Chelsy and Prince Harry and details of how he had met her wider family.

    Daily Mirror articleImage source, Crown

    "It also states I would be flying back to Britain on 19 December," says the prince.

    "I am at a complete loss as to how these details were obtained. Details of my travel plans, including dates I would be flying, were not released by the palace for security reasons, yet the specific date I would return to Britain was published days in advance."

  11. Harry pressed over whether he wanted to meet butlerpublished at 16:06 British Summer Time 6 June 2023

    Tom Symonds
    Home affairs correspondent, reporting from court

    Prince Harry’s been closely questioned on why he says in his witness statement he did not want to meet his mother’s former butler, but in his book Spare he said he did.

    He now tells the court: “I can’t remember whether I wanted a meeting with him or not.”

    So does he now remember calling Prince William and describing Paul Burrell as a “two-faced s***”?

    “I was leaving voicemails for my brother, and that is a terminology I used describing Mr Burrell, yeah,” Prince Harry says.

    The Mirror group's lawyer Andrew Green suggests there were sources talking about this story within the Royal Household.

    The Evening Standard’s royal correspondent Robert Jobson for one seemed to have spoken to them.

    “I wouldn't necessarily call them sources,” Prince Harry responds. “Based on a lot of what he’s written, they may be imaginary sources.”

  12. Were princes hacked over butler dispute?published at 15:58 British Summer Time 6 June 2023

    Dominic Casciani
    Legal correspondent, reporting from court

    A key article in Prince Harry's case was in The People in 2003, where he is clearly alleging possible phone hacking.

    It revealed a private disagreement between the prince and his brother, Prince William, over how to handle Paul Burrell, their late mother’s former butler, whom they thought should stop talking to journalists about her private life.

    The story quotes Prince Harry calling Burrell a "two-faced s***" - and he says the journalists may have got that from a voicemail interception.

    People article on royal brothers' disagreementImage source, Crown

    Prince Harry says: "Our disagreement over to how to handle the situation going forward was not something I wanted splashed across the defendant’s newspapers, and I have no idea how the defendant’s journalists obtained the information within the article.

    "A ‘senior royal source’ is quoted within the article, reflecting my exact private feelings - including that I was 'dead against any meeting' and that a meeting would be 'pandering to Burrell’s attention-seeking and self-interest'.

    "I also would have used the phrase “two-face s***”, as is reported and believe this could have been lifted directly from a voicemail I had left," he says in his witness statement.

  13. What's going on in courtpublished at 15:50 British Summer Time 6 June 2023

    Prince Harry and Andrew GreenImage source, Julia Quenzler

    Court has resumed after a short break, and the lawyer for Mirror Group Newspapers, Andrew Green KC, is still cross-examining Prince Harry.

    Green - described by one of his former clients as "a beast in court" - is a specialist in commercial law and has been cross-examining the prince since 10:30 this morning.

    Prince Harry submitted a witness statement for the trial, based on 33 articles which he claims included unlawful information gathering by the publisher, including phone hacking.

    Green has been basing his cross-examination off of these articles, going through each one in turn.

  14. Harry worried about Eton expulsion over drug takingpublished at 15:42 British Summer Time 6 June 2023

    Jemma Crew
    Reporting from court

    We're still digging through Prince Harry's 49-page witness statement, and we've just found a bit more from his time at Eton.

    Prince Harry says he was “extremely worried” he would be expelled from the school following press reports that he was using drugs.

    He refers to a front-page Daily Mirror story, published in January 2002, following a series of stories by the News of the World, with the headline: “Harry's Cocaine Ecstasy and GHB Parties”.

    In his witness statement he says these stories had “a huge impact on my life”.

    He writes that Eton had a “zero drugs policy” and he was “extremely worried I was going to be expelled”.

    He continues: “These articles were also written at a time when there had been an agreement between the press and the Royal Family, following the death of my mother, that my brother and I should be able to go through our education without constant scrutiny and interruption.

    “It seemed to me there was never any let up in the press coverage of every detail of my childhood, by the defendant’s journalists and others.”

  15. Analysis

    The courtroom is more Ikea than OId Baileypublished at 15:39 British Summer Time 6 June 2023

    Sean Coughlan
    From the High Court

    We can't show you pictures or footage from inside the court. But if you’re imagining the scene as a rather old-fashioned spectacle, with a lot of mahogany and pomp, then you’d be a long way off the mark.

    It’s a modern court with lots of plain cream walls, screens and modular furniture and shelves - looking more Ikea than Old Bailey. Or maybe a classroom in an ambitious sixth form college.

    Prince Harry is sitting down behind a desk and computer – and the opposing barrister isn’t pacing the floor melodramatically, but standing a few yards away, surrounded by stacks of documents.

    Behind Prince Harry is a video screen which shows the “overspill” room next door, being used to cope with the large numbers of journalists.

    The barristers are wearing wigs and gowns, but the setting is more like a modern corporate office than a costume drama.

    The Rolls BuildingImage source, Reuters
  16. What is this court case about?published at 15:33 British Summer Time 6 June 2023

    Prince Harry arrives in courtImage source, EPA

    The court is just taking a quick break, so let's step back from all the detail and recap the basics:

    Prince Harry is currently being cross-examined in the High Court.

    The prince, and three other people, are taking a newspaper publisher to court, alleging information about them was illegally gathered to generate stories.

    As part of this illegal gathering, they believe journalists from the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and The People exploited a security gap to access their voicemails and hear messages left by friends and family.

    Mirror Group Newspapers has previously admitted phone hacking took place, but says it didn’t in these cases.

    This is a test case - if Prince Harry and the other claimants win, the judge will use it to set the level of damages (amount of money) the publisher could pay in other cases from other celebrities.

  17. Harry unclear how photographer knew his location for 'beach bum' storypublished at 15:26 British Summer Time 6 June 2023

    Dominic Casciani
    Legal correspondent, reporting from court

    Paparazzi shots of Prince Harry in the sea with friendsImage source, Crown

    Sticking with Prince Harry's gap year in Australia, he says in his witness statement that a 2003 article about a private holiday on a beach was filled with photographs of him.

    “I remember this day so clearly,” he writes.

    “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. I wasn’t aware of anyone taking photographs at the time.

    “I only learnt recently that the Queen had asked one of her assistant private secretaries to ... take a house down the road from where I was staying, without me knowing.

    “She was concerned about the extent of the coverage of my trip and wanted someone I knew to be nearby, in case I needed support.”

    But the Mirror group's lawyer Andrew Green says that the London Evening Standard had been the first to report where he was - and the photographer had sold pictures to numerous newspapers.

  18. Harry alleges he was being watched in Australiapublished at 15:13 British Summer Time 6 June 2023

    Tom Symonds
    Home affairs correspondent, reporting from court

    In 2003 Prince Harry took a gap year, working on an Australian cattle ranch. The Daily Mirror reported concerns that media attention had left the prince sitting inside watching videos to avoid camera crews.

    Other newspapers also covered this story.

    Prince Harry’s witness statement includes a claim that Mirror Group Newspapers paid a private investigator £550 to have him watched in Australia.

    But again, the publisher's lawyer Andrew Green suggests that stories about him were briefed by one of his aides, Mark Dyer, who had concerns about the press attention.

    “You’d have to ask the journalist in question,” Prince Harry responds.

  19. Harry's mind goes blankpublished at 15:07 British Summer Time 6 June 2023

    Sean Coughlan
    Royal correspondent, reporting from court

    A brief pause in proceedings may have helped Prince Harry, who is facing more of a grilling from the Mirror publisher's lawyer about his claims of phone hacking.

    “My mind’s gone blank for a moment,” Prince Harry said, in response to questioning about an article on his part in a school cadet event.

    The lawyer cross-examining Prince Harry showed the same information had been put out in a press release from St James’s Palace and had been available on news wires, rather than any unlawful sources.

    The prince has been in the witness box for several hours now and you can maybe sense the tiredness.

  20. Prince Harry accuses Piers Morgan of intimidationpublished at 15:03 British Summer Time 6 June 2023

    Dominic Casciani
    Legal correspondent, reporting from court

    Piers MorganImage source, PA Media

    Former Daily Mirror editor turned TV host Piers Morgan features three times by name in Prince Harry's written witness statement.

    And in paragraph 194 (we're reading it all so you don't have to...), the prince launches a broadside.

    "Unfortunately, as a consequence of me bringing my Mirror Group claim, both myself and my wife have been subjected to a barrage of horrific personal attacks and intimidation from Piers Morgan, who was the editor of the Daily Mirror between 1995 and 2004, presumably in retaliation and in the hope that I will back down, before being able to hold him properly accountable for his unlawful activity towards both me and my mother during his editorship."