Prince Harry’s ‘secret deal’ claim is ‘Alice in Wonderland’ stuff, High Court hears
Prince Harry’s claim that Buckingham Palace had a “secret agreement” with The Sun’s publisher to stop him bringing a phone hacking claim is “Alice in Wonderland stuff”, the High Court heard.
The Duke of Sussex, 38, is suing News Group Newspapers (NGN) over claims journalists and private investigators, working for The Sun and the now-defunct News of the World, used illegal methods to gather information on him.
The Duke has alleged that a secret deal brokered between Buckingham Palace and NGN executives had stopped him from bringing the hacking claim until September 2019.
He is now seeking a High Court ruling allowing the hacking claim to be amended with details of the alleged pact, which he first learnt of “around 2012”.
NGN, which denies any unlawful activity took place at The Sun, has vehemently denied that such an agreement exists.
The publisher, in April, asked for a judge to throw out the phone hacking claims, arguing they were brought too late.
At the High Court on Wednesday, Anthony Hudson KC, representing NGN, said the Duke’s claims of a secret agreement was “Alice in Wonderland stuff” and a “construct” of his lawyers.
‘Not a single shred of evidence’
He accused the Duke of failing to provide a “single shred of evidence” for the claim, and that he had simply used the wide-ranging term “senior NGN executives” when referring to who was allegedly involved.
Mr Hudson told Justice Fancourt: “This agreement is such a secret agreement that no one apart from the claimant [The Duke] knows about it. It is a bizarre situation.”
He said that the Duke had provided no detail on whether this agreement was put into writing or orally, adding: “He has not put forward any evidence to demonstrate the reaching or the making of the agreement in 2012.
“He does not appear to have made any enquiries to the palace or his former solicitors. That is despite the fact this case, he has known about it for 11 years… There is not a single shred of evidence.
“There is a gaping hole in the claimant’s case which is not dependent on NGN disclosure.
“This is Alice in Wonderland stuff… that is the context on which this application is made.
“The delay is inexplicable… and there is no explanation for the delay which is staggering for making an application of this sort.
“It is now becoming abundantly clear... the case, is in reality, a construct of his lawyers.”
‘Behind the scenes’
David Sherborne, the Duke’s lawyer, has maintained that NGN and the Palace had brokered the agreement “behind the scenes” and that the Prince first learnt of it “around 2012”.
He said: “The agreement was agreed directly between the institution of the Royal family [referred to as the Institution] and NGN.”
He added: “The nature of the secret agreement must be subject to proper disclosure and argument at trial. The evidential response from NGN has been desultory and does not come anywhere close to meeting the evidential burden.”
An earlier witness statement from the Duke said he and his brother Prince William were first told of the agreement by “either the Royal family’s solicitor Gerrard Tyrell & Lewis” or “someone else from the Institution” and that “there was no possibility of either of us bringing a claim against NGN for phone hacking at the time.”
He said the agreement was to avoid a situation “where a member of the Royal family would have to sit in the witness box and recount the specific details of the private and highly sensitive voicemails that had been intercepted by Clive Goodman – the former royal editor for the News of the World”.
