<\/p>\n
Dr Harris described Ms Hart as a \u201cfantasist\u201d who was \u201cobsessed with Hugh Grant\u201d.<\/p>\n
Perhaps Daniel Portley-Hanks, a US-based private investigator, would prove more useful.<\/p>\n
The American, commonly known as Detective Danno, told the judge he \u201cdid unlawful stuff\u201d in relation to Prince Harry for the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday, but could not \u201crecall what exactly\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Portley-Hanks was paid \u00a36,000 by Johnson, plus additional sums of up to \u00a3290 ($400) a day for his \u201ctime\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr White said in written submissions there was \u201ca clear picture of purported evidence being obtained through financial inducements and threats\u201d.<\/p>\n
Next came the journalists, who variously described allegations that they had hacked phones or blagged information \u201cnonsense\u201d and \u201cabsolute b——s\u201d.<\/p>\n
Faced with the prospect of Mr Burrows\u2019s evidence being entirely disregarded, Mr Sherborne sought to cast his net wider, endlessly analysing payment records relating to other private investigators.<\/p>\n
With each journalist sworn in, Mr Sherborne followed a similar pattern, showing them various invoices which no one could remember.<\/p>\n
There was little that obviously linked any specific payment to any specific story, forcing the barrister to simply make assumptions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI suggest to you …\u201d was the repeated refrain as he accused each reporter of obtaining their stories via phone hacking and blagging.<\/p>\n
Sharon Churcher, the Mail on Sunday\u2019s former chief US correspondent, perhaps best summed up the general response.<\/p>\n
A formidable character, she had no intention of being bossed about by Mr Sherborne.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can suggest all you like, but what you are suggesting isn\u2019t true,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s ludicrous,\u201d she later added about a bizarre story involving Mr Portley-Hanks tracking someone by planting a helium balloon in their mailbox. \u201cIf you put it on Netflix, I think people would switch off.\u201d<\/p>\n
She told Mr Sherborne she would give as fulsome responses as she chose, so furious was she at the \u201clies\u201d being advanced.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease stop cutting me off,\u201d she told him.<\/p>\n
Others simply chuckled at the absurdity of it all, telling Mr Sherborne that he was clutching at straws. \u201cYou\u2019re just talking nonsense, I\u2019m sorry,\u201d Richard Simpson, the former showbiz reporter, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of this stuff is just incredible,\u201d Peter Wright, the former editor of the Mail on Sunday, volunteered. \u201cNo, you\u2019re wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Mr Sherborne summed up his case this week, he appeared to suggest that it was down to the publisher to prove that its stories had been obtained lawfully, likening the case to a valuable watch being stolen from a locked safe.<\/p>\n
If the watch were to appear in the hands of the defendant, he said, it would not be down to the claimant to prove how it came to be there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t find that example particularly helpful,\u201d the judge admitted.<\/p>\n
Mr Sherborne tried again. \u201cIf someone is injured by a van, if you can\u2019t identify the driver and the make and model of the van, it doesn\u2019t mean you don\u2019t have a claim.\u201d<\/p>\n
The judge warned that he was coming \u201cperilously close to reversing the burden of proof\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s for you to demonstrate that there has been a wrong,\u201d he told the barrister.<\/p>\n
Whether he has successfully done so remains to be seen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.telegraph.co.uk \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dr Harris described Ms Hart as a \u201cfantasist\u201d who was \u201cobsessed with Hugh Grant\u201d. Perhaps Daniel Portley-Hanks, a US-based private investigator, would prove more useful. The American, commonly known as Detective Danno, told the judge he \u201cdid unlawful stuff\u201d in relation to Prince Harry for the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday, but could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2354259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[349239,354579,427661,21738,22730,22769,365805,344742,24515,345946,356051,382398],"class_list":["post-2354258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-daily-mail","tag-elizabeth-hurley","tag-high-court","tag-news","tag-prince-harry","tag-royal-family","tag-sir-elton-john","tag-standard","tag-the-royal-family","tag-top-story","tag-uk-news","tag-us-content"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/My-11-weeks-inside-the-mad-circus-of-Prince-Harrys.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2354258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2354258"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2354258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2354260,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2354258\/revisions\/2354260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2354259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2354258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2354258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2354258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}