Dominic Casciani
Legal correspondent, reporting from court

Towards the end of his witness statement, Prince Harry launches into a wider analysis of a malaise at the heart of the British body politic.

"To save journalism as a profession, journalists need to expose those people in the media that have stolen or highjacked the privileges and powers of the press, and have used illegal or unlawful means for their own gain and agendas," he says.

"Our country is judged globally by the state of our press and our government – both of which I believe are at rock bottom.

"Democracy fails when your press fails to scrutinise and hold the government accountable, and instead choose to get into bed with them, so they can ensure the status quo.

"I feel there’s a responsibility to expose this criminal activity in the name of public interest.

"The country and the British public deserve to know the depths of what was actually happening then, and indeed now. We will be better off for it."

Dominic Casciani
Legal correspondent, reporting from court

Back to Prince Harry's witness statement - and he complains about two 2003 Mirror articles about him becoming parade commander for the Army cadets at Eton.

The Duke says being given the role had been "a big deal" for him and he was quite excited. He accepts in his statement that there had been a comment from the Palace about the role.

But he adds: "What seems unusual when reading this article is why the defendant’s journalists presented information taken from the Palace statement as coming from an Eton spokesman, as well as a spokesperson for myself, as though the information came from two separate places."

Andrew Green KC says that the information in the article came from the Palace - not unlawful information gathering.

Tom Symonds
Home affairs correspondent, reporting from court

An article in the Daily Mirror in September 2002 entitled “No Eton trifles for Harry” discussed the Prince’s 18th birthday plans.

Harry’s included it in his case despite giving an interview on the subject to the Press Association at the time.

Andrew Green points out that the contents had been used in several newspapers, not just the Daily Mirror. Did Prince Harry still maintain private information had been revealed without his consent?

Harry says he believed the story was connected with payments to private investigators.

“And so what?” says Andrew Green.

Prince Harry: “The timing is suspicious."

“And so what?” repeats Andrew Green.

“I’d given an interview. It had been enough to incentivise unlawful activity.”

A key strand of MGN’s case is that stories were legally reported because they were in the public domain.

The cross-examination of Prince Harry is resuming after the court's lunch break.

Stick with us as we bring you the latest updates.

Jemma Crew
Reporting from court

We're waiting for Prince Harry's cross-examination to resume after the lunch break. In the meantime, here's another line from his witness statement, which was released this morning.

He says he was “ashamed” of having caught glandular fever and is “not sure how anyone outside of my immediate family knew this”.

He says: “I didn’t tell anyone as I was ashamed of having contracted it. It’s one of those infections that had a huge stigma attached to it when you’re a teenager, which is exactly what the article itself is playing on, and the impact on me was huge.”

He is referring to a front page Daily Mirror article marked as “exclusive” with the headline "Harry’s sick with ‘kissing disease'", published in March 2002.

He says anyone who got it at school would be “teased endlessly” and the story “made sure the whole country knew about my diagnosis”.

“The whole school seemed to know, no one would go near me and I was a bit of a laughing stock," he says. "I felt miserable."

Harry growing in confidence - but Green gets more directpublished at 13:53 British Summer Time 6 June 2023

13:53 BST 6 June 2023

Sean Coughlan
Royal correspondent, reporting from court

There have been no knock-out blows so far in this courtroom battle.

Prince Harry seems to be growing in confidence, after a rather nervous start, while the Mirror’s barrister, Andrew Green, is becoming increasingly direct in his challenges.

The Mirror’s lawyer has been strong on the detail, repeatedly highlighting that some of these stories claimed to be the result of phone hacking had already been published by other newspapers.

The implication is that this was copying someone else’s story, rather than hacking someone’s phone.

But Prince Harry has focused more on the impact, talking about the paranoia produced by private information being published about him.

And the reply he keeps using is that it should be journalists explaining where they got the stories, not the person being written about.

After both sides warming up with the opening session, will the Mirror’s barrister now want to put more pressure on Prince Harry’s claims in the time remaining in the witness box?

Image source, PA Media

• Prince Harry is being cross-examined in the High Court in London, as part of his hacking case against Mirror Group Newspapers
• After being sworn in, he says he has "experienced hostility from the press since I was born"
• In a written witness statement - released at the same time he appeared in court - he says his answerphone messages were hacked from when he was a teenager at Eton school
• "My voicemails would include incredibly private and sensitive information about my relationships," he says
• He says the tabloids' attention meant he became paranoid, and couldn't trust anyone - "an awful feeling at such a young age"
• But the Mirror group's lawyer, Andrew Green, questions some of Harry's evidence - saying a 1996 story couldn't have been procured from Harry's messages, as he only got a mobile phone in 1998. Harry replies that there was a landline at his school
• Green also says many of the Mirror group's stories were already in the public domain - having been published by other papers

Jemma Crew
Reporting from court

Earlier in court, the lawyer for Mirror Group Newspapers referred to a line in Prince Harry's witness statement, which says he believes he was first given a mobile phone when he started at Eton, in 1998.

If this is the case, a 1996 Daily Mirror article with the headline “Diana so sad on Harry’s big day”, could not have involved any hacking of his mobile phone, lawyer Andrew Green says.

Image source, Julia Quenzler

Prince Harry replies that his security at school had a separate room with a landline - and his complaint about the 1996 article is that it is inexplicable how the newspaper got the information.

His witness statement says the reporter can be linked to private investigator payments - but Green says it's speculation that Diana had been hacked.

Dominic Casciani
Legal correspondent, reporting from court

Image source, Crown

One of the articles Prince Harry complains about is a report of how his mother had been in tears when visiting him at school on his 12th birthday in 1996.

The Daily Mirror says that the information came from reports in the public domain - including unnamed witnesses on a nearby footpath.

But in the prince's statement, he questions where the information came from.

"This section of the article makes no sense to me," he says.

"It’s my recollection that when my mother collected or visited me at school, she would be literally ‘in and out’ of the front door of the school.

"While there is a public footpath next to [the school], I’m not sure how anyone would have been able to see my mother from there and establish that she was upset, or why anyone would have stayed there long enough to be able to say she was only inside for 20 minutes."

After almost two-and-a-half hours of evidence from Prince Harry, the court is pausing for lunch.

Court will resume in an hour, but there's plenty still to bring you in the meantime.

Dominic Casciani
Legal correspondent, reporting from court

Let's look at what Prince Harry said in his witness statement about a piece published in the Mirror in November 2000.

The piece is about him getting a sporting injury at school.

In his witness statement, he says he has seen documentation from the case that suggests the reporter bylined on that story, Jane Kerr, had previously instructed a private investigator.

"The level of detail in is [sic] just surprising, as is the specific comment made by the defendant’s journalists that I had been told by doctors not to play football for a 'few weeks'."

Image source, Crown

In another 2001 story, the Sunday Mirror detailed potential damage to the young prince's spine from playing polo - information he says he did not share with classmates.

"It’s not at all clear to me how the defendant got this kind of information," says the prince in his statement.

Sean Coughlan
Royal correspondent, reporting from court

Image source, Julia Quenzler

The Mirror’s barrister is turning up the heat in his questioning of Prince Harry.

“That’s not an answer,” says the barrister sharply to one reply – and then he accuses Prince Harry of being “in the realms of total speculation”.

It’s about the reporting of Prince Harry getting an injury playing sport at school.

From Prince Harry’s perspective, he says this could have come from phone hacking and it created a sense of distrust of those around him, even about going to the doctors.

But the Mirror’s lawyer, chipping away at the hacking claim, says much of the story had already been published in other news outlets.

Tom Symonds
Home affairs correspondent, reporting from court

In the courtroom, Prince Harry is being asked about the Daily Mirror newspaper article we mentioned in the previous post.

It's one of the stories he alleges was obtained criminally.

The prince says he doesn't walk in public and couldn't have been seen by bystanders attending the lunch in London's Fulham Road.

"How did you get there?" he is asked by the newspaper publisher's lawyer.

"By car - from a security perspective I don't walk down the streets as I get recognised."

Dominic Casciani
Legal correspondent, reporting from court

Let's look closer at that article about Prince Harry having Sunday lunch in a pub on Fulham Road in London.

The article, in the Daily Mirror's 3am celebrity gossip column from September 2000, details two lunch dates, one with "seven blondes and two male" friends.

The Daily Mirror says a photographer had been tipped off about that pub visit - and followed it up.

The story adds that the prince had "insisted" the week before that his bodyguard join him for a pizza.

Image source, Crown

"I don’t know how anyone would have known I was at this particular pub, at this particular time, in order to be there, taking photographs of me," the prince says in his witness statement.

"I always found these kind of ‘coincidences’ to be odd.

"I now understand that the bylined journalists, and the ‘3am desk’ as a whole, are well-known in this litigation for being involved in phone hacking and other forms of unlawful information gathering.

"I’m unsure of how the defendant’s journalists could have been aware of any private conversation between me and my [bodyguard]."

Jemma Crew
Reporting from court

Prince Harry is asked about an article about him having Sunday lunch in a gastro pub in London's Fulham Road.

It's put to him that there are other ways that his whereabouts could have been known to the newspaper, that weren't through unlawful information gathering.

He says: “I do not believe that as a witness it’s my job to deconstruct the article or be able to answer which parts are unlawfully obtained and which aren’t. I think the journalist themselves should be doing that.”

We've just had this sketch, drawn by court artist Elizabeth Cook, showing the scene inside the courtroom where Prince Harry has been giving evidence.

The prince is pictured on the left, with his lawyer David Sherborne on the right, and judge Mr Justice Fancourt in the centre.

Image source, PA Media

We rely on sketches from court, rather than photos or a video stream, because cameras aren't allowed for most UK court hearings.

Tom Symonds
Home affairs correspondent, reporting from court

Let's hear more about one line of questioning Prince Harry is facing: it's put to him that some stories were written by Mirror newspapers as follow-ups to stories in rival publications.

Prince Harry says journalists were "desperate for anything royal" and "any element of our private lives is interesting to the public".

"Just because there was a story which came out previously doesn’t mean there weren’t attempts to take the story further," he says.

He says there was a "competitive nature between the news corporations".

The Mirror Group Newspaper's lawyer Andrew Green puts to him that it's a little unfair to complain about a story saying Prince Harry was going climbing with his brother rather than attending a gala for the Queen Mother, which had already been published by other newspapers and was in the public domain.

Newspaper lawyer pinning down Harry on detailspublished at 12:03 British Summer Time 6 June 2023

12:03 BST 6 June 2023

Sean Coughlan
Royal correspondent, reporting from court

There’s a pattern emerging in this courtroom battle between Prince Harry and the Mirror Group Newspaper’s barrister, Andrew Green.

The Mirror’s lawyer is pinning down Prince Harry with questions about specific details – while Prince Harry is pushing back with more broad brush scepticism about how newspaper stories were gathered.

“If you say so,” Prince Harry replies ironically at one point.

But the Mirror barrister persistently pursued Prince Harry on why a Mirror story is being accused of being derived from hacking, when much the same the story had been in the Mail a few days before.

Image source, EPA

Prince Harry is currently being cross-examined in the High Court - and his written witness statement has also been released. Let's recap how we got here.

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.

Dominic Casciani
Legal correspondent reporting from court

Prince Harry says in his witness statement that the evidence disclosed by Mirror Group Newspapers in this case reveals its newspapers made 289 payments to private investigators for information relating to both him and his associates.

"I understand from my solicitors [that these] are huge numbers in the context of this litigation, especially considering that the defendant is known to have concealed and destroyed evidence of their wrongdoing on an industrial scale.

"I now realise that my acute paranoia of being constantly under surveillance was not misplaced after all.

"I was also shocked and disgusted to discover that my name and mobile number were in a contact list belonging to known hacker, Nick Buckley, which is further proof that I was a victim of voicemail interception and unlawful information gathering."

That's a reference to an editor at the Sunday Mirror who has previously been named in relation to the scandal.