Daily Mail publisher ‘knew they had skeletons in their closet’, court told

The Daily Mail’s publisher “knew they had skeletons in their closet”, lawyers acting on behalf of the Duke of Sussex and others have told a court.

Harry, Sir Elton John, his husband David Furnish, campaigner Baroness Doreen Lawrence, politician Sir Simon Hughes, and actresses Sadie Frost and Liz Hurley all allege Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) had a practice of “clear systematic and sustained use of unlawful information gathering”.

Opening the trial in the legal action against ANL, which publishes the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday, barrister David Sherborne said its denials of unlawful activity “were not true”.

Addressing the court at the Royal Courts of Justice on Monday, he said the alleged acts “involved journalists from both the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday and every significant editorial desk”.

Antony White KC, for ANL, said it was “a striking feature of the case that none of the articles were the subject of complaint by the claimants at the time of publication”.

Mr White told the court in written submissions that the celebrities bringing legal action had “leaky” social circles and that all of the claims have been brought too late.

He said: “In relation to almost every article alleged to be the product of phone hacking or phone tapping, Associated is able to call a witness or witnesses to explain how the article was in fact sourced.

“The claimants’ inferential case of phone hacking and phone tapping is met and convincingly rebutted.

“The pattern of misconduct the claimants seek to establish is simply not made out.”

In their own written submissions, the claimants allege the publisher had a “culture of unlawful information gathering that wrecked the lives of so many.”

Mr Sherborne told the court the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday were engaged in unlawful information gathering over “at least two decades”.

He added: “There is evidence, indisputable evidence, in the documents that Associated journalists and senior executives were commissioning and approving the acquisition and use of unlawfully obtained information, and they must have known that.

“That is why we say this was no clean ship, far from it.”

Mr Sherborne also said ANL had denied any unlawful acts at the Leveson Inquiry, and its position was “a clear and unequivocal one”.

He said: “They emphatically denied that there had been any unlawful activities at all. In short, they swore that they were a clean ship.”

But he continued: “Associated knew that these emphatic denials were not true.”

He added: “They knew they had skeletons in their closet.”

The Duke of Sussex, who is expected to give evidence on Thursday, appeared in person at the Royal Courts of Justice to follow proceedings.

Mr Sherborne said the alleged unlawful information gathering in the duke’s case is related to 14 articles between 2001 and 2013.

In his written submissions, he said the Daily Mail publisher’s alleged unlawful practices are “likely to have … had a profoundly negative impact” on Harry’s personal relationships.

Mr Sherborne said there was “no meritorious public interest” in the articles about the duke that are alleged to be based on unlawful information gathering.

In response to Harry’s claims, ANL said in their written submissions: “At all material times, the Duke of Sussex’s social circle was and was known to be a good source of leaks or disclosure of information to the media about what he got up to in his private life.”

Mr White later said that the duke also discussed his private life in the media, and information about his life was also provided by Palace spokespeople.

Sir Elton and Mr Furnish are expected to follow Monday’s proceedings on a live video-link.

The claimants allege the publisher carried out or commissioned unlawful activities such as hiring private investigators to place listening devices inside cars, “blagging” private records and accessing private phone conversations.

ANL has strongly denied wrongdoing.

The group of household names started their legal cases against ANL in 2022, with documents setting out the claims naming dozens of journalists, including some national newspaper editors.

In 2023, ANL failed to have the cases thrown out before a trial on the basis that they were “time-barred”, or brought too late.

In written submissions for the hearing in May that year, Adrian Beltrami KC, for ANL, said that the legal actions were “stale”.

He also said the individuals had to prove they did not know earlier, or could not have discovered earlier, that they might have had a claim against it for alleged misuse of their private information.

Mr Sherborne previously said the alleged unlawful acts in the claim include illegally intercepting voicemail messages, listening to live landline calls and obtaining medical records.

In written submissions, he said: “They range through a period from 1993 to 2011, even continuing beyond until 2018.”

Mr Justice Nicklin rejected ANL’s bid to have the claims dismissed in November 2023, ruling that the publisher had not delivered a “knockout blow” to the claims.

He concluded that each of the group had a “real prospect” of demonstrating that ANL concealed “relevant facts” that would have allowed them to bring a claim against the publisher earlier.

There have been several preliminary hearings in the claim, including one in November 2024 that heard that Lady Lawrence was “alerted” to a potential legal claim by a text from Harry.

Harry has previously brought legal action against other newspaper publishers over allegations of unlawful information gathering.

He was previously awarded £140,600 in damages by a judge from Mirror Group Newspapers in 2023, and settled a claim against News Group Newspapers, the publisher of the Sun and the now-defunct News Of The World, last January.

The trial, which is expected to last nine weeks, continues.