Harry's lawyer tells UK court Daily Mail complicit in unlawful acts

LONDON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Prince Harry, Elton John and other public figures were victims of systematic phone hacking and other unlawful acts by Britain's powerful Daily Mail, their lawyer said on Monday as the trial of their high-profile privacy case against the publisher began.

The British royal and six other claimants accuse the Mail's publisher Associated Newspapers of unlawful behaviour violating their privacy from 1993 until 2011 and beyond, in a civil case with high stakes for the claimants and media alike.

Harry, 41, who arrived smiling and waving, said in a witness statement quoted by lawyers that it was "disturbing to feel that my every move, thought or feeling was being tracked and monitored just for the Mail to make money out of it".

Associated, however, calls the allegations "preposterous smears", saying their journalists had legitimate sources for information, including celebrities' "leaky" social circles.

The publisher also alleges the litigation is part of a coordinated conspiracy by a wealthy group driven by personal animosity towards the media.

The nine-week trial will not just put reputations on the line, in a case with legal costs running to tens of millions of pounds, but could open up a new front in long-running litigation over the practices of the British press.

It must be a Monday; Harry is outdoors playing the Victim once again. I thought this 15 year old ‘case’ was settled years ago. Harry remains full focused on The Past, not the present or future.

Let’s not forget how uncaring he can be.
Most recent example: Has Harry uttered on word of sympathy for his father-in-law Thomas Markle, age 81, who just had part of one leg amputated due to effects of a stroke?
No, of course you haven’t, b/c Harry simply doesn’t GAF about people who are not going to make him look good.
Plain and simple.

An update. Holy moly. Behind a paywall, but the headline and this comment say it all...

Revealed: Prince Harry’s flirty messages and ‘movie snuggles’ with reporter Online conversations suggest closer relationship between pair than Duke admitted during his privacy court case

Note this commemt...

"Kaaren Boullosa 59 min ago

Griffiths comes from a distinguished family - related by both blood and marriage to the Soameses and Duff Gordons (look them up), both with longstanding ties in royal and aristo circles.

That Harry thought he could, in court, throw Griffiths under the bus with impunity - especially after the lengths she went to support the Bring Harry Back campaign in the Mail last year - should show even those still hanging on just how traitorous Harry is.

Harry has no loyalty to anything or anyone, from King and country, to the friends and circle from which Meghan so quickly saw she had to separate him.

Griffiths has, more or less, labeled Harry as a virtual perjurer.

Harry's - and Meghan's - shared, and increasingly self-destructive penchant for rearranging reality, has been enabled by people who still think their loyalty to Harry is a two-way street. Most of these supporters justify it with the belief that, after all, it's all Meghan's fault!

But it isn't all Meghan's fault. She only offered Harry a channel for what Harry already had within him.

These enablers are now also labeled as having carried the water for a virtual perjurer, who turns out not to share their loyalty - whether based in class, personal affinity, or the belief that it's all Meghan's fault so Harry is an innocent victim of a ruthless golddigger.

Note to same: With the Griffiths debacle, ask yourselves if Harry is worth your loyalty.

Or, if you've really helped him to grow up by trying to save him from himself."

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