Sawt Falasteen - Prince Harry says UK tabloid court battle in 'public's interest'

On the third day of a highly anticipated nine-week trial, Harry began testifying against Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL), the publisher of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday, in his joint claim that they unlawfully gathered information about him.

Brought alongside six other high-profile figures, including pop icon Elton John and his husband David Furnish, it is the prince's last active legal case in his long-running crusade against the British media.

"There is obviously a personal element to bringing this claim, motivated by truth, justice and accountability, but it is not just about me," he said in a written statement unveiled as he entered the witness box.

"There is also a social element concerning all the thousands of people whose lives were invaded because of greed," the prince said.

"I am determined to hold Associated accountable, for everyone's sake... I believe it is in the public's interest."

Dressed in a dark suit and striped tie, Harry, 41, took the stand at London's High Court late morning, swearing an oath on the bible before facing questions from ANL's legal team.

He made history in 2023 by becoming the first senior British royal to enter the witness box in more than a century, when he testified in his successful hacking claim against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN).

Last year, on the eve of another scheduled trial, Rupert Murdoch's UK tabloid publisher NGN agreed to pay him "substantial damages" for privacy breaches, including phone hacking.

- 'Lurid' -

In the ANL case, the seven well-known figures -- including actors Liz Hurley and Sadie Frost -- accuse the publisher of illegally intercepting voicemail messages, listening in on phone calls and deceptively obtaining private information.

They allege it paid private investigators implicated in other phone-hacking lawsuits for some of the unlawful information used to generate dozens of stories.

The accusations cover a period from at least 1993 to 2018 in some instances.

ANL has consistently denied the claims, calling them "lurid" and "preposterous".

King Charles III's younger son has long railed against media intrusion, blaming paparazzi for the death of his mother Princess Diana, who was killed in a Paris car crash in 1997 while trying to shake them off.

Ahead of his evidence session Wednesday, he sat in the High Court on Monday and during some of Tuesday's proceedings.

Hurley and Frost, who joined him, are also set to give evidence along with all the other claimants.

Campaigner Doreen Lawrence -- whose son Stephen was murdered in a 1993 racist attack -- and ex-politician Simon Hughes are the other two.

- 'Paranoid' -

David Sherborne, representing the seven, told the High Court on Monday that he will show "there was clear and systematic use of unlawful gathering of information" at ANL.

He added in opening arguments that it "knew they had skeletons in their closet" and that years of "emphatic denials were not true".

In his witness statement, Harry describes ANL's "endless pursuit" of him, which he claims made him "paranoid beyond belief, isolating me, and probably wanting to drive me to drugs and drinking to sell more of their papers".

"It feels creepy, like you're constantly being watched, and you can't trust anyone around you," he added.

"It feels like every aspect of your life behind closed doors is being displayed to the world for amusement, entertainment and money."

He added that at the time, between 1996 to around 2014, he "suspected those close to me, including my friends and bodyguards, of being the sources of that private information".

Antony White, ANL's lawyer, has countered that the trial will show that it has "provided an explanation through a long series of witnesses of the sourcing by its journalists of the 50-plus articles" concerned.

The allegations around payments to private investigators were "clutching at straws in the wind", White added on Tuesday.

H.Nasr--SF-PST