Today was the beginning of Prince Harry’s privacy trial against the Daily Mail’s publishers.
Along with six other high-profile claimants, he is accusing Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) of obtaining information for stories unlawfully.
Barrister David Sherborne started proceedings with his opening statement, and we will hear from Prince Harry in the coming days.
Sherborne accuses ANL of “clear, systematic and sustained use of unlawful information gathering”, through the use of private investigators and “blagging” – impersonation to obtain private information.
The claims date as far back as 1993, and continue until “beyond 2018”, court documents say.
Sherborne listed multiple private investigators allegedly contracted by ANL. He says these were used to find out banking information, flight details, medical records, and private information of the claimants.
This week, we’ll hear the rest of Sherborne’s opening statement, as well as from defence lawyer Antony White KC, who is representing the publishers.
As a reminder, the Daily Mail’s publishers have denied all wrongdoing and will be given opportunity to respond to the claims as the case progresses.
We’re pausing our live coverage, but you can continue to read more about this case in our main story.