Prince Harry trial – live: Mirror Group ‘were s**tting themselves’ over phone hacking, court hears

The Duke of Sussex has begun his latest battle against the British press in the High Court.

Emma Mackenzie

·Yahoo UK royal reporter

Tue, 16 May 2023 at 1:31 pm BST

The High Court trial between Prince Harry and the publisher of the Daily Mirror over claims of phone-hacking is starting its second week and will see the first witnesses give evidence.

Today’s session began with journalist and researcher Brian Basham who gave evidence for the claimants, with no other witnesses available to appear today.

Yesterday, 15 May, former Daily Mirror journalist Dan Evans and Omid Scobie, Yahoo UK’s royal executive editor who writes a weekly column for Yahoo, appeared for the claimants.

The Duke of Sussex is one of four people – alongside former soap actress Nikki Sanderson, comedian Paul Whitehouse’s ex-wife Fiona Wightman and actor Michael Turner – bringing claims of unlawful information gathering against Mirror Group Newspapers

Yahoo News will be keeping you up to date with all the big breaking news and major talking points from the trial, which is due to last up to seven weeks.

The top talking points in the first week of the trial included:

• MGN claims some of the stories about Prince Harry didn’t come from hacking, but from other members of the Royal Family and their staff.
• The court was told confidential financial information about the late Queen’s cousin, Prince Michael of Kent, was blagged on behalf of MGN by a private investigator from Coutts bank.
• It was claimed Piers Morgan, who was editor of the paper from 1995 to 2004, “must have known” that private investigators were using “illegal methods”.
• Morgan has insisted he never ordered phone hacking.
• MGN is contesting the claims, arguing that some have been brought too late.