Prince Harry was back on the witness stand in London on Wednesday in his phone hacking trial.
Despite a long first day on the stand, he arrived at the Rolls Building with a smile. Inside, he quickly got back to business answering questions related to his claims that publications within Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) used unlawful and deceptive methods — including phone hacking — to get information for stories about him that ran in the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, and Sunday People between 1996 and 2010.
Harry, who’s the first senior royal to give testimony since the 1890s, along with more than 100 others — actors, sports stars, celebrities, and people connected to famous figures — are suing MGN, claiming that journalists or private investigators hired by the outlets carried out this hacking on an “industrial scale.” MGN, which previously admitted to publishing stories based on phone hacking, denied hacking Harry’s phone. The civil case is looking at 33 articles about Harry — son of Britain’s King Charles III — that he alleges were obtained unlawfully, including ones about his relationship with ex-Chelsy Davy and a disagreement he acknowledged having with Prince William.
Harry, who now resides in California with wife Meghan Markle after stepping down as a senior royal in 2020, told the publisher’s attorney that he’d feel “injustice” if it was found that he wasn’t hacked, saying, “To have a decision against me and any of the other people [bringing a claim], given that Mirror Group have admitted hacking, yes, it would feel like an injustice ‘..if it wasn’t accepted.”
He also asserted that the hacking — which accessed voicemails left by friends and family — could have been occurring “on a daily basis. I simply don’t know.” He said for publications, “the risk is worth the reward for them.”
He was also observed to be emotional at the end of his testimony while being questioned by his own lawyer, saying of experience, in front of a global audience, “It’s a lot.”
Here were the biggest takeaways from Wednesday’s testimony.
Harry claimed a tracking device was put on former girlfriend Chelsy Davy’s car
He told the court that he once found a tracking device on the car of his then-girlfriend. He alleged it was placed there by a private investigator, Mike Behr, whom he has accused in other cases of targeting him for information.
In this case, a lot of the articles stem from when Harry was in a long-distance relationship with Davy, whom he dated from 2004 to 2010. He said they communicated a lot by phone about all types of personal matters, including all aspects of our relationship, and often through voicemail. They ultimately split when Davy decided “royal life was not for her.”
SOURCE: YAHOO
