Prince Harry deliberately destroyed potential evidence in phone hacking case, court hears

Prince Harry has been accused of “deliberately destroying” potential evidence relating to his High Court phone hacking claim against the publisher of The Sun, a court has heard.The Duke of Sussex, 39, was awarded $180,700 in December after London’s High Court ruled he had been the victim of “modest” phone-hacking and other unlawful information gathering by journalists on British newspapers.But now, more than six months after the ruling, an attorney for the publisher of the British tabloid has accused Harry of engaging in “shocking” and “extraordinary” obfuscation.Attorney Anthony Hudson said at High Court that Harry had deliberately destroyed text messages with the ghostwriter who penned his bombshell memoir, “Spare,” released in Jan.2023.The Duke’s lawyer has denied the claims, saying News Group Newspapers was engaging in a “classic fishing expedition” by requesting documents so late in the case.“NGN’s tactical and sluggish approach to disclosure wholly undermines the deliberately sensational assertion that the claimant [Harry] has not properly carried out the disclosure exercise,” Harry’s attorney, David Sherborne, said in court papers.

“This is untrue.In fact, the claimant has already made clear that he has conducted extensive searches, going above and beyond his obligations.”In response, Hudson claimed that the father of two had created an “obstacle course” to the documents the publisher is seeking.“If the claimant wanted his documents from his former solicitors’ or from the royal household … he would have got them,” the attorney said.The court heard that the Duke of Sussex must now personally disclose how drafts of his protocol-shattering book, as well as messages between him and his ghostwriter, were destroyed “well after” he launched the lawsuit in 2019.On Thursday, Justice Timothy Fancourt, presiding, said it was “troubling” that the documents had been wiped after the case was already underway.

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