Ignoring a judicial directive, Prince Harry was absent from the inaugural session of his legal face-off with UK tabloid Daily Mirror on Monday in London.
According to David Sherborne, Prince Harry's legal representative, the Duke of Sussex, could not attend the court proceeding due to travel and security complications. He had traveled from Los Angeles following the celebration of his daughter Lilibet's second birthday.
Judge Timothy Fancourt expressed surprise at Harry's absence, having earlier directed him to be present for the high-profile trial's commencement.
This trial signifies the beginning of a series of five lawsuits filed by Harry against UK tabloids for alleged phone hacking and privacy infringement. Andrew Green, the legal counsel for Mirror Group Newspapers, voiced his deep concern over Harry's nonappearance at the trial's kickoff.
Green accused Harry's legal team of squandering the court's time as he had anticipated cross-examining the prince regarding 33 articles which Harry argues were rooted in illegally procured material.
Prince Harry, aged 38, was slated to testify on Tuesday. However, his lawyer received instructions last week to ensure the Duke's presence in London's High Court on Monday in case opening statements concluded early.
Harry's lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspapers pertains to the alleged illicit acquisition of information. Sherborne countered Mirror's claim of employing a private investigator to extract information on Prince Harry on a single occasion, alleging that the volume of unauthorized information gathering implies frequent use.
Sherborne conveyed that the defendant's means were justified by their ends.
This trial, being the first of several lawsuits filed by Harry against the media, is one of three that assert illicit snooping by tabloid publishers.
Mirror Group maintains that its reporting on the royal was based on legally obtained documents, public statements, and sources. However, Sherborne claimed that Mirror journalists employed the same methods - listening to voicemails and hiring private investigators - against Harry as they did with others.
Harry, slated to be the first royal family member in over a century to testify in court, is predicted to elucidate the incessant media scrutiny that plagued his life. The prince has held the paparazzi responsible for his mother's tragic demise in a 1997 car accident in Paris and cited British press harassment as the reason behind his and his wife Meghan Markle's departure from royal life in 2020.
Mirror Group Newspapers denied hacking Harry's phone and affirmed that its stories were grounded in legitimate reporting practices. The publisher has apologized for engaging a private investigator for a single incident involving Prince Harry.
Harry's lawsuits also target Rupert Murdoch's News Group Newspapers, The Sun, and Associated Newspapers Ltd, which owns the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday.
The focus of the initial trial is Mirror Group and 33 out of the 150 stories it published about Harry from 1995 to 2011.
Sherborne implicated Piers Morgan, a former Daily Mirror columnist, as allegedly sanctioning the use of the illicit material for publication. Both Mirror Group and Morgan have repudiated any involvement in the phone hacking, with the publisher describing the articles as possessing a "breathtaking level of triviality."
