Liz Hurley ‘devastated’ by allegation of phone tapping, court told

Actress Liz Hurley was “devastated” by the allegation that her home landlines had been tapped, the trial in her legal action against the publisher of the Daily Mail has been told.

Hurley is one of seven people, including the Duke of Sussex, Sir Elton John, Baroness Doreen Lawrence and Sir Simon Hughes, suing the publisher over allegations of unlawful information gathering (UIG).

Harry returned to the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Thursday morning, a day after giving his evidence, before leaving the building shortly before 12.45pm.

Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) strongly denies wrongdoing and is defending the claims.

On Thursday, actress Liz Hurley, accompanied by her son, Damian, attended court to give evidence.

The alleged unlawful information gathering in Hurley’s case relates to 15 articles between 2002 and 2011.

In her witness statement, she said the allegation that her home landlines had been tapped “devastated” her.

She said in her written evidence: “The Mail’s unlawful acts against me involve landline tapping my phones and recording my live telephone conversations, placing surreptitious mics on my home windows, stealing my medical information when I was pregnant with Damian and other monstrous, staggering things.”

Hurley continued: “Above all, it was the discovery that The Mail had tapped the landlines of my home phones and tape recorded my live telephone conversations that devastated me.

“I had not come across this brutal invasion of privacy in either of my two battles with the other newspapers. I felt crushed. It represented the ultimate violation of privacy.”

She added: “There’s a vast difference – both indefensible – between someone intercepting a voicemail and someone listening in on every single phone call in your home and concealing a tape recorder and attaching it to your home BT wire to record your live telephone conversations.

“I was seething when I discovered the Mail did this to me.”

Wearing a deep green, knitted dress, Hurley became visibly upset in the witness box, crying on several occasions as she was taken through a number of news articles.

Giving evidence, she said she did not complain about the articles at the time, because from what she remembered, “complaints were for libel”.

She added: “They (the articles) were in essence true. I believe that is because people were listening to me speak.”

Hurley said: “There were so many deeply hurtful and damaging articles about me in the media. It became just a business of unpleasantness.”

Hurley also told the court that sometimes she would worry if she had said something too loudly, but “there were microphones on the windowsill of my dining room… I was being listened to”.

Hurley said: “Yes, there were leaks, but they were not from my friends.”

In written submissions for the trial, Antony White KC, for ANL, said the allegations of UIG by Associated’s journalists, “including of phone hacking and phone tapping, in connection with Ms Hurley or her 10 named associates” are “unsupported by the evidence before the court”.

He added: “Not only are they entirely baseless but, as with the other claimants’ claims, they are borne of an attempt by members of the claimants’ research team, adopted by Ms Hurley and her legal representatives, to present a case of UIG against Associated based entirely on spurious and, or, discredited information.”

During his trial opening, Mr White said that the claims against the publisher were “threadbare” and had been brought too late.

He continued that journalists at the organisation provide a “compelling account of a pattern of legitimate sourcing” of the more than 50 articles that are alleged to be the products of unlawful information gathering, including from the “leaky” social circles of the celebrities’ friends.

Damian Hurley, who was sitting next to Harry, sat in court as his mother gave evidence.

The trial before Mr Justice Nicklin is due to conclude in March with a decision expected in writing at a later date.