Tapped phone calls, bribery of police officers: Prince Harry, Elton John and Liz Hurley sue newspaper publishers

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Prince Harry and Elton John at the International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam in 2018

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ROBIN UTRECHT/EPO-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Prince Harry (38), Elton John (75), Liz Hurley and other British celebrities have filed a joint lawsuit against the publishers of the Mail on Sunday and the Daily Mail.

It is about alleged intrusions into the privacy of the plaintiffs, as reported by the Guardian, among others.

The group has "overwhelming and extremely disturbing evidence that they have been the victims of prolific criminal activity and gross violations of privacy," the Hamlins law firm said in a statement.

Among other things, according to the plaintiffs, private detectives are said to have installed listening devices in cars and apartments on behalf of the journalists.

In addition, the plaintiffs' health and financial information is said to have been obtained through unlawful means.

Police officers were also bribed.

Could be "tip of the iceberg"

Elton John's husband David Furnish and British actress Sadie Frost are also among the plaintiffs.

According to the law firm, the cases known so far could be “only the tip of the iceberg”, many more victims could still be known.

The accused publisher, Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), immediately rejected the allegations and spoke of "absurd defamation". It was a planned and orchestrated attempt to draw the "Mail" titles into the wiretapping scandal.

More than a decade ago, the UK media was rocked by a massive scandal involving tapped phones and other illegally obtained information from celebrities and crime victims.

The focus at the time was the weekly newspaper »News of the World«, which was discontinued in 2011 and belonged to the empire of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, which competed with the ANL.

svs/dpa