Prince Harry court case: Duke accused of time wasting after missing first day of Mirror Group Newspapers trial

Prince Harry has been accused of time wasting after missing the first day of the Mirror Group Newspapers trial in the High Court.
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Prince Harry is due to appear at the High Court in London as his case against the publisher of the Daily Mirror over alleged unlawful information gathering begins. The Duke of Sussex is suing Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) for damages, claiming its journalists gathered information through illegal means, including phone hacking.

Lawyers for the Mirror group have accused Prince Harry’s team of “wasting time” by not having him available to give evidence today. Andrew Green KC said it was “absolutely extraordinary we were told just last week that he is not available for day one of his own trial".

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Prince Harry will become the first senior royal to give evidence in court since Edward VII testified as a witness in part of a divorce case in 1870 and 20 years later in a slander trial over a card game, both before he became king. He is due to enter the witness box on Tuesday, when he will face cross-examination from MGN’s lawyers.

In the case of Prince Harry, 33 articles will be looked at, with the publisher denying 28 of them involved phone hacking or other unlawful information gathering. They claim stories instead came from a variety of other sources - including other members of the Royal Family.

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Prince Harry

Mirror Group Newspapers deny allegations of voicemail interception in the cases being examined here, and claim some of the cases being brought are beyond a legal time limit. MGN has also defended some of its reporting by alleging a "public interest".

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