A revenant who missed his return. If Prince Harry arrived this Tuesday, June 6 in the morning at the High Court of London to testify against the tabloid The Daily Mirror that he accuses of hacking telephone messaging, his absence from the day before has been talking. And for good reason: the youngest son of King Charles III was expected for a cross-examination conducted by the lawyer of the press group. But the second birthday of his daughter Lilibet, Sunday, June 4, did not allow the Duke of Sussex to fly in time from Los Angeles.
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Faced with this absence, Daily Mirror lawyer Andrew Green said he was "deeply troubled". For his part, Judge Timothy Fancourt did not hide his annoyance, saying he was "a little surprised". What foreshadow tense exchanges with Harry.
In video, Prince Harry arrives at the court in London for a trial against a tabloid
As expected, the Duke of Sussex finally entered the court on Tuesday, without saying a word to the dozens of journalists who were waiting for him. This is the first appearance of a member of the royal family at the bar in more than a century, since that of the future Edward VII in 1891 for a defamation lawsuit.
"No aspect of the young prince's life was protected"
Exiled in California with his wife Meghan Markle, the youngest son of King Charles III, in delicate with the rest of the British royal family, has initiated a series of legal proceedings against British newspapers.
In the ongoing trial, which began last month, Harry accuses the publisher of the Daily Mirror of using illicit processes to gather information, including hacking into telephone messages, between 1996 and 2010. Setting out the prince's grievances, his lawyer said the media group had used the services of "at least 30 private detectives". Harry was the victim of illegal information collection "from his childhood at school" until adulthood, denounced Monday his lawyer David Sherborne, adding that "nothing is sacrosanct or out of bounds". "No aspect of the young prince's life was protected" from press intrusions, the lawyer said, citing his romantic relationships and an argument with his brother William.
At the beginning of the trial, the Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) - which in addition to the Daily Mirror newspaper publishes Sunday Mirror and Sunday People - apologized "unreservedly", acknowledging "some evidence" of illegal information gathering. The publisher's lawyer, Andrew Green, on the other hand, rejected the accusations of interception of voice messages and highlighted the age of the facts. "There is simply no evidence to conclude that the Duke of Sussex was hacked," he said.
Still, Harry's battle against the tabloid press went a step further when he was "chased" by "very aggressive paparazzi", at the end of an event in New York with his wife Meghan Markle. An episode that revived the memory of Diana's death.
Scandals, Harry and Meghan: chronicle of a storm announced
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