Prince Harry and five other high-profile claimants have announced that they will appeal the verdict in their case against the publisher of the Mail newspapers. A statement from the group’s legal team said they believed the Hight Court verdict against them in July was “legally and factually flawed.”
“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 statement read. “The Claimants respectfully disagree with those unprecedented decisions, which they consider to be legally and factually flawed’.
The statement was issued on behalf of Baroness Lawrence, Elizabeth Hurley, Sir Elton John CBE, David Furnish, Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex and Sadie Frost. The only original claimant not mentioned was UK politician Simon Hughes, who the Daily Telegraph said has chosen not to appeal.
Mr. Justice Nicklin handed down his judgement in the long-running and bitterly-fought case just as Prince Harry arrived for his first public appearance on his trip to the UK in July. He dismissed the case, saying that the claimants had “failed to prove their pleaded allegations of UIG [unlawful information gathering].”
A spokesperson for Associated Newspapers described the verdict as “a magnificent vindication of the Daily Mail’s journalism” and said that they would be seeking to recover costs. In August, a judge ordered the claimants to make an initial payment of £9.54 million (almost $13 million). Costs for the case were awarded on an indemnity basis aside from where orders had already been made, and the claimants were facing a large bill.
Harry’s case concerned 14 stories from 2001 to 2013 that he claimed were the subject of unlawful information gathering by journalists at the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday. In a statement after the July verdict was announced, Prince Harry and Baroness Lawrence described it as a “complete and obvious whitewash.”
Town & Country Contributing Editor Victoria Murphy has reported on the British Royal Family since 2010. She has interviewed Prince Harry and has travelled the world covering several royal tours. She is a frequent contributor to Good Morning America. Victoria authored Town & Country book The Queen: A Life in Pictures, released in 2021.