Prince Harry’s lawyers have been scolded by a judge for trying to add a swathe of new allegations to their legal battle against the Daily Mail’s publisher.
The Duke of Sussex is one of seven claimants, also including Sir Elton John and Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon, suing Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) for alleged privacy breaches dating back up to 30 years.
On Friday, Mr Justice Nicklin, the High Court judge hearing the case, strongly criticised their “unorthodox” approach and suggested lawyers for the claimants had shown a “fundamental misunderstanding” of the scope of the litigation.
He said allegations that ANL had commissioned “burglaries to order” and that Catherine, Princess of Wales, had been targeted by Mail journalists must be removed from their claim.
Mr Justice Nicklin said the claimants could not rely on evidence from phone-hacking cases brought against the Sun and Mirror, stating: “This was different litigation, concerning different allegations, raising different issues, against different defendants.”
He also criticised an attempt to prove widespread unlawful activity at the Mail newspapers, saying it was an “enormous exercise” in “the territory of a public inquiry” and was “not necessary”.
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