Prince Harry arrives at the High Court in London earlier this year
“Every facet” of the Duke of Sussex’s life was splashed across the papers, his lawyer has told the High Court.
David Sherborne said it was “obvious” stories about Prince Harry’s private life drove sales for Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN).
Harry is claiming that journalists and investigators working for the publisher used unlawful methods to gather information, including phone hacking.
MGN denies phone hacking in this case, but previously admitted it took place.
At the start of the High Court hearing last month, the publisher of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People admitted a private investigator had been instructed to unlawfully gather information relating to Prince Harry’s conduct in a nightclub in February 2004.
This incident does not form part of the duke’s claim for breach of privacy.
But Mr Sherborne told the court on Monday the suggestion that there was only one instance of unlawful information gathering was “plainly implausible”, arguing it would have happened on “multiple occasions”.
At the heart of the case are 207 newspaper stories published between 1991 and 2011 – some 67% of which written about Harry.
Alongside the duke, Coronation Street actors Michael Turner – known professionally as Michael Le Vell – and Nikki Sanderson, as well as Fiona Wightman, the ex-wife of the comedian Paul Whitehouse, have also brought claims against the publisher.
The claimants argue senior executives must have known about unlawful information gathering behind these stories and failed to stop it, which MGN denies.
Harry will become the first senior royal to testify in a court of law for more than 130 years when he steps into the witness box on Tuesday.
