Prince Harry has lost his London privacy case against the publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday in London’s High Court.
The civil case against Associated Newspapers Ltd. for allegedly unlawful information gathering saw the High Court judge on Tuesday morning rule against the Duke of Sussex and six other claimants, including Elton John and husband David Furnish, actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost.
In his judgement, Justice Nicklin said the allegations against the Daily Mail publisher required more evidence to be proven in the civil case. “The court accepted that, given the nature and age of the allegations, the claimants’ cases often depended on inference. But suspicion, even where understandable, was not enough. The claimants had to prove that the information complained of had been obtained unlawfully. The court rejected the argument that, simply because information was private, and because Associated could not positively explain how it had been sourced, the relevant article must have been unlawfully sourced.”
The judgement added the claimants “failed to prove their pleaded allegations of UIG (unlawful information gathering). The court rejected the attempt to prove the claims by broad inference where there remained a legitimate and realistic possible lawful source pathway, or where the article-specific evidence did not prove that the relevant information must have been obtained unlawfully.” All claims against Associated Newspapers were dismissed by the High Court judge.
