Prince Harry and others lose case against Daily Mail

The UK's Prince Harry, Elton John and Baroness Doreen Lawrence's claims against the Daily Mail’s publisher over alleged unlawful information gathering have been dismissed by a High Court judge.

A group of household names alleged acts including voicemail interception, landline tapping and obtaining information by deception - also known as "blagging", carried out by private investigators, freelance journalists and staff at Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL).

ANL strongly denied the claims as it defended the cases, which it also said had been brought too late.

In a decision today, judge Mr Justice Nicklin said that none of the group of seven had proven the allegations of unlawful information gathering.

He said in the 436-page ruling: "For the reasons given in this judgment, each of the claimants’ claims is dismissed."

Dozens of people gave evidence during the trial in London, including Prince Harry, the rest of the group of household names of Liz Hurley, Sadie Frost and Simon Hughes, as well as many current or former ANL journalists and executives.

During around two hours of cross-examination in January, the prince said he could not complain about some of the 14 articles in his case at the time "because of the institution I was in".

He also said in his written evidence that "knowingly false" information was added to stories to "put me off the scent", to conceal unlawful methods, including voicemail interception.

As part of its defence, ANL said that the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday journalists provide a "compelling account of a pattern of legitimate sourcing of articles", including friends and "leaky" social circles, press officers and spokespersons, as well as previous reporting, freelance journalists and stories from other newspapers and news agencies.

The trial also heard arguments over whether the cases were brought in time as the law states that legal action related to unlawful information-gathering must be launched within six years of someone discovering they could have a claim.