Prince Harry, along with six other claimants, has received a disturbing update on the phone hacking cases against the publisher of the Daily Mail and a verdict will be announced soon.
King Charles’ youngest son had claimed that the British tabloid had used illicit and illegal methods to acquire information for its articles. The Duke of Sussex had stressed that none of the people in his close circle would reveal intimate details.
Meanwhile, Sir Elton John, David Furnish, Elizabeth Hurley, Sadie Frost, Baroness Doreen Lawrence and Sir Simon Hughes also gave evidence and witness statements during the 10-week trial.
Current and former journalists and Associated staff have also provided evidence.
However, a key witness in the case, who could be seen as deciding the verdict, backtracked on his claims, suggesting the plaintiffs had been “scammed” in his statement on Monday.
Private investigator Gavin Burrows appeared in court via video where he said his signatures had been forged on that statement which he said “targeted hundreds, possibly thousands of people.”
Burrows told the court the statement “had nothing to do with me.”
“You have to explain to your claimants how you have been defrauded,” he said during an exchange with Harry’s lawyer, David Sherborne.
“This is based on a lot of lies.”
Harry’s lawyer argued that Burrows was only changing his statement because the private investigator had fallen out with journalist Graham Johnson.
But Burrows was adamant that “the whole thing is a matter of fiction.”
He told the court he had never worked for or paid Associated.
The verdict is expected to be announced later this month after final statements are delivered.
