Prince Harry Seeks Investigator Receipts in Phone Hacking Case

(Bloomberg) -- Prince Harry is one of several high-profile names seeking a court order to obtain evidence that could prove Mirror Group Newspapers paid private investigators to gather information on celebrities.

Lawyers for the class-action suit brought by over 70 stars, including comedian David Walliams and former Manchester United star Ryan Giggs, asked London’s high court for an order requiring the disclosure of payment records. The invoices are necessary to determine the scope and nature of private investigator activities in the phone-hacking scandal as well as whether the group’s legal department and board knew of their use, lawyer David Sherborne said in written submissions.

Prince Harry is a new addition to the lawsuit, after he lodged his legal complaint against the British newspaper in October. It followed a scathing statement he made about the treatment his wife Meghan Markle has received by the U.K. press, which he described as a false, malicious and “ruthless campaign.” He compared it to the treatment of his mother, Princess Diana, who died in a car crash in Paris in 1997 while being pursued by photographers.

The prince is also suing News Group, which owns the Sun and ran the defunct News of the World, for alleged phone hacking. Meghan is suing Associated Newspapers over the Mail on Sunday’s decision to publish a private letter she wrote to her father. The pair announced earlier this month that they had reached an agreement with the Queen to step back as senior members of the royal family and forge a financially independent life for themselves.

Prince Harry’s representatives didn’t respond to a request for comment. Reach Plc, which now owns Mirror Group, declined to comment.

Hacking Scandal

The phone-hacking scandal peaked in 2011 amid revelations that the News of the World routinely listened to private phone messages to break stories on celebrity gossip and other news. One of the cases to bring the practice to public attention was when journalists hacked into the voice-mails of murdered teenager Milly Dowler, which interfered with the police’s investigation.

The resulting furor led to the shuttering of the News of the World as well as the collapse of News Corp.’s plans to acquire Sky Plc. Sherborne told the court that Mirror Group hired private investigator Starbase, which was involved in voice-mail interception, to gather information on Dowler when she went missing in 2002.

“The fact that these activities were used even in relation to such an extreme and sensitive case as Milly Dowler only serves to demonstrate the extent and habitual use of unlawful information gathering activities at MGN,” he said.

--With assistance from Joe Mayes.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ellen Milligan in London at emilligan11@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net, Christopher Elser, Peter Chapman

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