Prince Harry arrives at High Court for trial against the Daily Mail

Prince Harry has arrived at the High Court in London for the start of his privacy trial.

The Duke of Sussex will be the opening witness in a ten-week case against Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday.

Harry is suing the newspaper group along with Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Sir Elton John and four others, alleging phone hacking, tapping into landline calls, and ‘blagging’ personal information among a raft of unlawful activities.

When the group launched their case, in 2022, they also alleged ‘the commissioning of burglaries or the breaking and entering of private property in order to obtain private information’.

This allegation was struck out by the court at a preliminary hearing last year.

Associated Newspapers says the allegations are unfounded and untrue.

It lodged a ‘trenchant defence of its journalism’ with the High Court during the pre-trial stages of the case.

Harry flew in from California to attend the opening of the high-profile case, which is estimated to cost £38million.

The King’s son is scheduled to give evidence all day on Thursday.

The duke, along with Baroness Lawrence – the mother of murdered Stephen Lawrence - and Sir Elton, are joined by the singer’s husband David Furnish, model Elizabeth Hurley, actress Sadie Frost and politician Sir Simon Hughes, the former president of the Lib Dems.

The seven claimants will spend about three weeks setting out their case against the publisher.

It begins today and tomorrow with an opening statement by David Sherborne, the barrister for the claimants.

Harry, dressed in a navy blue suit and a matching tie sat in court with Liz and Damian Hurley, Sadie Frost and Sir Simon Hughes, all listening intently as Mr Sherborne opened their case, following along as documents appeared on a screen. Former Lib Dem MP Sir Simon appeared to be taking notes as the allegations were outlined.

The allegations, which date back to 1997, involve claims that journalists at The Mail on Sunday and the Daily Mail breached the claimants’ privacy by commissioning private investigators to hack into mobile phone voicemail messages, eavesdrop on live landline phonecalls and ‘blag’ personal information including medical and financial records, and ex-directory phone numbers.

Prince Harry, Baroness Lawrence, Sir Elton, Mr Furnish and Ms Hurley all launched their claims citing former private investigator Gavin Burrows, who had ‘confessed’ to carrying out illegal activities for the newspaper.

Mr Burrows has since denied ever working for Associated Newspapers and claims a ‘witness statement’ presented by the claimants’ legal team was not written by him and the signature on it is a forgery.

Mr Burrows has been served with a witness summons and is scheduled to give evidence in early February, but there is a question mark over whether he will appear.

He has requested to give evidence from abroad via video link.

Last week, at a pre-trial hearing, Mr Sherborne told the court that Prince Harry’s legal team face ‘exceptionally serious’ allegations of fraud, dishonesty and conspiracy.

He said the publisher’s opening statement to the trial contained ‘multiple express allegations of serious wrongdoing… including that specific lawyers have acted dishonestly in the conduct of proceedings and/or have misled the Court’.

All seven claimants are scheduled to enter the witness box to give their evidence and be questioned about their claims by barristers for Associated Newspapers. They have a number of supporting witnesses, including Ms Frost’s former husband, the actor Jude Law.

After the claimants have presented their case, the trial is due to hear from more than 40 witnesses for Associated Newspapers, which denies ‘unlawful information gathering’.

Its journalists will be questioned about the true sources of their stories. The defence case is scheduled to last until mid-March.

Mr Justice Nicklin, the trial judge, is expected to give his ruling on the case later in the year.