Prince Harry and a group of high-profile figures have launched a Court of Appeal bid to challenge a judge's rulings in their unsuccessful phone hacking case against the publisher of the Daily Mail. The Duke of Sussex is joined by Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Sir Elton John, his husband David Furnish, and actresses Liz Hurley and Sadie Frost in the application.
Case background and dismissal
The group previously sued Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) over allegations of unlawful information-gathering, including voicemail interception, landline tapping, and obtaining information by deception. ANL strongly denied the claims, which were heard at an 11-week trial in London earlier this year.
Judge Mr Justice Nicklin dismissed all the cases in a judgment on July 7. In a subsequent decision in August, the judge ruled that the group had to pay £9,544,355 within seven days as an initial contribution to the publisher's costs ahead of further hearings to determine the total sum.
Appeal application filed
Mr Justice Nicklin also said that ANL's costs should be determined on an indemnity basis, which is more favourable to the publisher in terms of the amount it can recover, aside from where orders had already been made.
On Friday, a spokesperson for the group said: "We confirm that the claimants have today filed applications with the Court of Appeal for permission to appeal the judgments of Mr Justice Nicklin in respect of his dismissal of their claims and the indemnity costs order. The claimants respectfully disagree with those unprecedented decisions, which they consider to be legally and factually flawed." Court staff also confirmed on Friday that a bid to appeal against the rulings had been filed at the Court of Appeal.
Claims and publisher's response
Barristers for the group had alleged at trial that private investigators, freelance journalists and staff at ANL carried out acts including voicemail interception, landline tapping and obtaining information by deception – also known as "blagging".
Lawyers for the publisher said that Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday journalists provided a "compelling account of a pattern of legitimate sourcing of articles", including friends and "leaky" social circles, press officers and spokespeople, as well as previous reporting, freelance journalists and stories from other newspapers and news agencies.
