The Royal Family #39

[F1Grid]

There is very wide latitude in witness statements for civil cases. He is free to mention the appalling Mr. Morgan, he is free to mention death (his mother's, I assume) and the Mirror's barrister is free to question him on it. Perhaps you are forgetting that he doesn't actually need to 'prove' anything. All he needs to do is establish that on the balance of probability the Mirror was using illegal means to acquire information. As the Mirror has already admitted doing it at least once they don't really have much of a leg to stand on.
Having been on the receiving end of being dorrstepped by the Mail when trying to take my small daughter to nursery complete with camera flashes, shouting etc., and then having the horrible experience of a completely distorted and untrue article written about a friend and myself in the Mail on Sunday I can say, hand on heart that it felt utterly violating. The idea of going through most of your life feeling that way makes me want to throw up. The media in this country is an absolute disgrace and it's time there was a crackdown. I hope Harry and the others in this case win, and win big.

He’s specifically suing to say that the Mirror Group used illegal means in obtaining the information that they published though. Not that it’s tit having stories written about him.

This will be thrown out and he’ll have to pay the legal costs of the papers, and they’ll rightly rinse him for being thick enough to accuse them of phone hacking and blagging with zero evidence.

 

[Onetwofour]

Some parts of the interrogation by the Mirror's lawyer makes Harry look like a fool. I don't know what will come out of all of this. But what did Harry's lawyers think? Why so many chosen exemples are not convincing? Why didn't they prepare a solid case with only exemples that cannot so easily refuted by the adverse party?

I believe that tabloids use sometimes illegal means and I feel bad for people that got their privacy invaded but I doubt Harry's case will bring strong sanctions against them. Hopefully other targeted people have better exemes that cannot be destroyed like Harry's.

 

[thegirlscout]

Reading this morning he said he was worried about the story that talked about him doing E and cocaine (I think it was those drugs) because Eton has a zero tolerance policy on drugs and he only did cannabis.
So did he get special treatment because of who he was? Or was it because they couldn’t prove he did drugs?

 

[Multi-21]

Harry and Meghan just undermine themselves at every stage with silly mistakes

 

[tagliatelle]

Harry and Meghan just undermine themselves at every stage with silly mistakes
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Looks like someone did a find and replace on Prince Charles.

 

[SaLou]

Harry is a fool. The updates are embarrassing to read.

 

[Em_gardener]

It doesn't sound like he has a very strong case. The Mirror seem to be able to point to other sources for all the articles he's suing over and he's even contradicted what he wrote in Spare so that doesn't look good either.

 

[Honeystar]

The problem with this case is it’s actually hard to take a side -

- on the one hand phone hacking is horrific and I cant imagine how violated you would feel
- however his case seems to be poor and there actually seems to be limited evidence he actually WAS a victim of phone hacking

personally I think a lot of this is driven by Harry’s ego and wanting to be as important as his brother and sister in law (who both were actually hacked a ridiculous amount of times) and of course if he can position himself as a victim of phone hacking it’s another step in his takedown of the press and another chance to be the victim

also, I can’t help but wonder how much info were these people leaving in bloody voicemail messages? Why not just leave a “I’ll call you back later” message like most people

 

[Em_gardener]

The problem with this case is it’s actually hard to take a side -

- on the one hand phone hacking is horrific and I cant imagine how violated you would feel
- however his case seems to be poor and there actually seems to be limited evidence he actually WAS a victim of phone hacking

personally I think a lot of this is driven by Harry’s ego and wanting to be as important as his brother and sister in law (who both were actually hacked a ridiculous amount of times) and of course if he can position himself as a victim of phone hacking it’s another step in his takedown of the press and another chance to be the victim

also, I can’t help but wonder how much info were these people leaving in bloody voicemail messages? Why not just leave a “I’ll call you back later” message like most people

Ya I definitely think he could have been hacked but I also think he doesn't have any proof and MGN seem to be able to show that there were other articles about the same topic from different newspapers on the same day so they can't be solely blamed. He's also contradicted himself a few times and parts of his statement seem a bit irrelevant or exaggerated e.g. the government being rock bottom - fair enough it's his opinion but what's that got to do with MGN - or the bit about him saving the profession of journalism - that's overkill I think. Interesting stuff though. Has his own barrister questioned him yet - I thought they usually went first?
When they say phone hacking do they just mean voicemail hacking or is it phone tapping too?

 

[F1Grid]

Ya I definitely think he could have been hacked but I also think he doesn't have any proof and MGN seem to be able to show that there were other articles about the same topic from different newspapers on the same day so they can't be solely blamed. He's also contradicted himself a few times and parts of his statement seem a bit irrelevant or exaggerated e.g. the government being rock bottom - fair enough it's his opinion but what's that got to do with MGN - or the bit about him saving the profession of journalism - that's overkill I think. Interesting stuff though. Has his own barrister questioned him yet - I thought they usually went first?
When they say phone hacking do they just mean voicemail hacking or is it phone tapping too?

He references one voicemail in particular that he left for William.

Issue is, although Harry has previously been hacked (as admitted in the News of The World trials into the 'babykins' nickname William gave Kate) he doesn't have any evidence that the Mirror/People did it. Half of his answers have been 'well know did >paper who published it before the Mirror< know?' which the Mirror/People aren't responsible for, or suggesting that the Mirror would then hack him to try and get an even better story that they then didn't publish so people wouldn't know they were hacking.

He doesn't seem to understand who he's actually suing.

 

[Honeystar]

I have no doubt he was hacked but the fact is, you have to actually PROVE it beyond reasonable doubt in a court of law and right now I don’t think he’s done that.

He’s included a story about Paul Burrel that he’s saying they must have got from a voicemail he left Prince William, well wouldn’t that actually mean they hacked Williams voicemail? Not Harry’s? So I don’t know that’s relevant

 

[Multi-21]

This exchange sums up in two tweets why he doesn’t know what’s going on or what he is actually trying to prove

 

[Boring Monday]

I have no doubt he was hacked but the fact is, you have to actually PROVE it beyond reasonable doubt in a court of law and right now I don’t think he’s done that.

He’s included a story about Paul Burrel that he’s saying they must have got from a voicemail he left Prince William, well wouldn’t that actually mean they hacked Williams voicemail? Not Harry’s? So I don’t know that’s relevant

Yes, unfortunately believe me because I say so doesn't really stack up burden of proofwise.

Knowing how the press was at that particular point in time I would be more surprised to hear he wasn’t hacked or followed by a shadey gumshoe in a trilby and mac, but it seems he’s Singularly managed to pick a host of instances that can be explained away.

A legal team can only advise. At some point, if a client is determined to have their day in Court all they can do is throw their hands up and say, well, crack on then. It’s daft, I strongly disagree, but I’ll get paid whatever.

 

[Em_gardener]

He references one voicemail in particular that he left for William.

Issue is, although Harry has previously been hacked (as admitted in the News of The World trials into the 'babykins' nickname William gave Kate) he doesn't have any evidence that the Mirror/People did it. Half of his answers have been 'well know did >paper who published it before the Mirror< know?' which the Mirror/People aren't responsible for, or suggesting that the Mirror would then hack him to try and get an even better story that they then didn't publish so people wouldn't know they were hacking.

He doesn't seem to understand who he's actually suing.

Ya but he said that he and William were disagreeing about whether to meet Burrell or not and that he didn't want to but apparently in Spare he said he did want to. Then today when this was pointed out by MGN he said he couldn't remember whether he wanted to or not because it was ages ago but he does remember that he was leaving voicemails for William and he did call Burrell that name so I don't know how much weight could be given to that?? He even says he didn't remember leaving that specific message!

I don't think he'll be able to prove it even though he was likely hacked whether by MGN or not. Like you said, he's taking aim at all the media in his evidence even though he's only suing MGN and his lack of focus seems to be weakening his case.

 

[FenellaTheWitch]

This exchange sums up in two tweets why he doesn’t know what’s going on or what he is actually trying to prove
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Why on earth did he pick these examples? It's really embarrassing and so basic. As for calling Paul Burrell a 'two faced tit' it sounds like something Harry used more than once and could just have been picked up on. Or William mentioned that's what Harry called him. It's all so wishy washy. You can't win by saying 'I just have a feeling'.

I think we can all agree though that if Harry loses it won't be his fault. It will be the establishment closing ranks and protecting themselves or something.

 

[Em_gardener]

He seems like a really damaged individual with an unhealthy obsession with the press which I do understand but it's not good for him at all. He seems to view himself as a soldier on a mission to destroy the Press and save journalism but that's not really what's happening here. I wonder how he'll cope if he loses. I also don't think that the British press is that different to the American press - certainly not at the period he's talking about - and I don't think the world are looking at the British press and government and thinking they're at rock bottom. For me, rock bottom for the press was the 90s, 00s and rock bottom for the government was towards the end of the Johnson era.

 

[FenellaTheWitch]

He seems like a really damaged individual with an unhealthy obsession with the press which I do understand but it's not good for him at all. He seems to view himself as a soldier on a mission to destroy the Press and save journalism but that's not really what's happening here. I wonder how he'll cope if he loses. I also don't think that the British press is that different to the American press - certainly not at the period he's talking about - and I don't think the world are looking at the British press and government and thinking they're at rock bottom. For me, rock bottom for the press was the 90s, 00s and rock bottom for the government was towards the end of the Johnson era.

Of course they aren't. The press/media/paparazzi the world over will go to extreme lengths if they sniff a decent story. Harry will never escape it unless he really takes himself out of the public eye which he obviously has no intention of doing.

 

[thegirlscout]

I didn’t realise people left so much information on answerphones.

 

[hannah123]

Harry and Meghan just undermine themselves at every stage with silly mistakes
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He continuously referred to his grandmother as The Queen of England and called William the future King of England in his book. It’s one of those things that’s really minor and most people would ignore, but is just wrong.

 

[hehehe]

Harry and Meghan just undermine themselves at every stage with silly mistakes
View attachment 2221333

In the last thread someone was asking why Harry never briefed Meghan on things she lied that she knew nothing about (curtsey, national anthem, the kids' titles etc) -- it's because he doesn't know anything to teach her. He did not spend his time and entitlement in the Royal family learning anything or giving a tit about understanding his duties or protocol, in addition to being too much of a dunce to learn those things by repetition or accident.

Not surprised he doesn't know his own father's title -- probably only knows how to demand money from him.