Prince Harry is currently in a legal battle with a group of publishers
Prince Harry risks landing in trouble as he is being accused of withholding information relating to his High Court phone hacking claim against the publisher of The Sun.
According to The Telegraph, News Group Newspapers has demanded the Duke of Sussex to release emails, text messages and WhatsApp messages between him and Sir Cliver Alderton, the King’s private secretary, Sir Michael Stevens, the Keeper of the Privy Purse and treasurer to the King, as well as JR Moehringer, ghostwriter of Harry’s memoir Spare.
For the unversed, the defendant believes the “destroyed material” could contain evidence relevant to the case in a bid to help their defense.
Anthony Hudson KC, attorney for NGN accused the prince of “obfuscating,” i.e., “trying to create an obstacle course” to prevent them from obtaining potential evidence.
“It is, I’m afraid we say, another example of the obfuscation in relation to the claimant’s case. We say it’s shocking and extraordinary that the claimant has deliberately destroyed…,” he said, before being interrupted by Mr Justice Fancourt to say: “Well we don’t know what has happened. It’s not all clear.”
Mr David Sherborne, for Harry, denied suggestion that his client had “dragged his feet, had to be dragged kicking and screaming, had set up some kind of obstacle course.”
The NGN is also looking for material held on two encrypted hard drives, including Cloud storage locations or backup tapes that the Spare author claimed have been lost.
However, two of the devices comprising work documents from his staff’s shared drive had been found, one at his California home and the other at the office of his US lawyer.
For the unversed, Harry and more than 40 others currently embroiled in a legal battle with the publisher over alleged unlawful information-gathering and invasion of privacy.
A trial has been scheduled for January.
