Prince Harry has completed a two-day stint in the witness box at the High Court in London, where he faced a comprehensive cross-examination in the case he has brought against the Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN).

The Duke of Sussex believes his voicemails were accessed illicitly and in preparation he had prepared a 55-page witness statement, detailing the times when unlawful methods were used to obtain personal information.

There were 33 sample articles which were selected for focus from a choice of more than 140, which covered events in Harry’s life between 1996 and 2009, and he was asked over the course of the two days to explain why exactly he believed that the newspapers used illegal practices to write them.

He faced the challenging prospect of bringing factual or overwhelmingly compelling circumstantial evidence to back his claims; whilst it was the task of MGN’s lawyer, Andrew Green, to pick his case apart. 

MGN has previously admitted phone hacking took place, but says it didn’t in this case, or in the cases of those of a further three individuals, who are forming a “test-case” of claimants, and who will be following the Prince into court in the coming days.

If they are successful it is expected that the judge, Mr Justice Fancourt, will use them to set the level of damages in subsequent cases likely to be brought by other celebrities.

First royal in witness box for more than hundred years

Royal appearances at the High Court are few and far between. Indeed the last senior royal to give evidence in a court was Edward VII back in 1891, when he was the then Prince of Wales, in disputes over “improper familiarity” in a divorce case and of all things… cheating at cards.

This particular attendance has been building for years, with Prince Harry seemingly on an unstoppable collision course with the tabloid press. Indeed, the Duke has openly said that changing the media landscape is his “life’s work” and therefore with regards to this case, he is determined to see this action through to the end.

Huge attention around Prince’s attendance

Like just about everything else in Prince Harry’s life, there was massive media attention at the start of proceedings, with the courtroom packed to capacity, helicopters darting around the skies above, banks of TV cameras lining the street and photographers crowded around the court entrance, fighting, as they do, to get the best pictures for this unique story.

Harry defends his reasons

Mr Green KC opened his questioning by suggesting Harry’s hostility towards the press pre-dated his belief that they were using unlawful methods to gather information about him, and was more based around a historic dislike of them.

The Duke, who was initially addressed as “your royal highness” before saying he wanted to be called “Prince Harry” denied this and countered: “In my experience as a member of the Royal Family, each of us gets cast into a specific role by the tabloid press.”

Then followed that with his favourite and now becoming tiresome line of: “especially if you are the spare to the heir” which he based his controversial memoir around.

He claimed that he has been painted at various times as a “thicko”, a “cheat”, an “underage drinker” and an “irresponsible drug taker’”, amongst other things. He said the tabloids created a distorted version of him to the general public.

Former relationship brought into spotlight

His barrister, David Sherborne addressed the Court, highlighting how no aspect of his client’s youth was safe from press intrusion, citing stories about his on-off relationship with Chelsy Davy for around six years from 2004, which became increasingly strained, after being picked apart by the tabloids, “clearly driven by unlawful activity”.

It eventually ended with Ms Davy deciding the repeated acts of harassment from the press were “not for her”. Prince Harry told how he once found a tracking device on her car during the period around “a make or break” holiday they took.

Stalemate between parties

Mr Green KC became increasingly direct in his challenges as the hearing wore on, suggesting stories were sourced from official statements, or were available in the public domain. A pattern emerged with Mr Green getting into specifics and insisting that the claims were “in the realms of total speculation”.

Prince Harry, who began nervously, often giving short responses, did grow in confidence as the day wore on, and batted away such suggestions with general scepticism.

A parting clash

Summarising MGN’s defence, Mr Green said there was no data showing that Harry had been hacked, to which Prince Harry’s legal team argued that MGN covered it all up and destroyed potential evidence of unlawful information gathering.

The pair had one last clash with Mr Green pressing the Prince to identify a single voicemail that he knew was hacked, to which the Prince replied: “There is hard evidence of suspiciousness.” Then asked if he was claiming damages on the basis that his phone was hacked on daily basis, the Prince speaking directly to the Judge answered: “I simply don’t know, My Lord. That’s part of the reason why I’m here.”

Other claimants to make their case

Although that is it as far as Prince Harry is concerned regarding giving evidence, there are still more than two weeks more to run in this case. Still to appear are three other individuals: soap stars Michael Turner, known professionally as Michael Le Vell, and Nikki Sanderson, together with Fiona Wightman, the ex-wife of the comedian Paul Whitehouse.

Upon the conclusion of hearing from all parties, Mr Justice Fancourt, will then decide, on the balance of probabilities, who is telling the truth. If he finds in favour of the claimants he will then have to decide on the appropriate action to take, which can be anything from awarding them as little as £1 up to staggering amounts of money.