The Duke of Sussex is preparing to travel to the UK for the first time in four months to become the opening witness in a celebrity privacy trial.
Harry is expected at the High Court in central London on Monday for the start of a nine-week case involving allegations of hacking mobile phones, tapping landline calls, and “blagging” personal information.
He is scheduled to give evidence all day on Thursday. Other celebrities due to give evidence include Sir Elton John, 78, the singer, the actors Sadie Frost and Liz Hurley, both 60, and Frost’s former husband, Jude Law, 53.
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The trip is Harry’s first to the UK since September last year but he will not meet the Prince of Wales or the King, who is staying at Balmoral in Scotland. He had a 50-minute meeting with the King during his last visit.
The duke is not expected to make any formal public appearances but will have private meetings with charities with which he is associated.
He has applied for police protection for the visit after losing his case against the Home Office for automatic security when he returns to the UK. The Home Office was reported last month to be reviewing where Harry should automatically receive full police protection even though he is no longer a working member of the royal family.
Harry, 41, claims the lack of the automatic police protection means he does not feel safe bringing his wife, Meghan, 44, and children, Prince Archie, six, and Princess Lilibet, four, to the UK.
Harry became the first member of the royal family to give evidence in court for 130 years in his successful claim against the publisher of the Daily Mirror in June 2023.
Sir Elton John has asked to give evidence remotely
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John and his husband, David Furnish, 63, who are both bringing claims against Associated Newspapers, have asked to give evidence via video link. No reason for the request was given during a pre-trial hearing on Thursday. John launched his alcohol-free sparkling wine from his home in Windsor, Berkshire, on Monday.
Associated Newspapers Ltd, the publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, denies allegations of wrongdoing and has previously described the claims as “lurid” and “simply preposterous”. Legal costs in the case are estimated to total about £40 million.
The court was told of an alleged attempt to “intimidate” Gavin Burrows, a private detective who claimed that a statement filed by Harry’s lawyers in which he appeared to admit unlawful gathering on behalf of the publisher was “forged”.
Burrows received an email from a journalist at the Byline Times on Wednesday saying that it was publishing a story about him, the court was told. Andrew White KC, for the publisher, said that it was a “blatant attempt to intimidate” a witness days before the start of the trial.
Gavin Burrows
BBCTIMESGRAB FROM EXPRESS ONLINE
Mr Justice Nicklin has allowed “hearsay” evidence from James Hanning, the former deputy editor of the Independent on Sunday, and Clive Driscoll, the police officer who secured the convictions in the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence, the son of Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon. The evidence relates to disputed claims that another private investigator admitted “blagging” evidence from Baroness Lawrence on behalf of the Daily Mail by posing as a journalist for The Guardian newspaper.
The trial is expected to last nine weeks.