Prince Harry’s legal team quizzes royal reporter on claims editor Piers Morgan ‘injected’ details into her stories

On the final day of evidence in his case, lawyer David Sherborne grilled the paper’s former royal correspondent Jane Kerr, whose byline appears on several of the 33 articles cited by Harry as examples of unlawful intrusion by publisher Mirror Group Newspapers.

Mr Sherborne suggested to her that some of the information in her stories came from phone hacking.

“It absolutely didn’t,” Ms Kerr said with a touch of anger.

“I’ve never intercepted a voicemail. I wouldn’t even know how,” she added.

She also denied knowing about lawbreaking by any freelance journalists or private investigators employed by the newspaper.

Ms Kerr acknowledged in her written witness statement that Mr Morgan, who edited the Daily Mirror between 1995 and 2004, “would occasionally direct or inject information into a story” without her knowing the source.

Asked about quotes in one story, she said: “I can’t say for sure where I got them from, because I can’t remember. It’s possible Piers gave them to me.”

Mr Morgan has denied knowing about phone hacking at the Mirror, and the company is contesting Harry's claims.

Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) has previously paid more than £100m (€116m) to settle hundreds of unlawful information-gathering claims, and printed an apology to phone hacking victims in 2015.

Harry, who flew from his home in California to testify earlier in the week, was not at the High Court today.

He spent a day and a half in the witness box on Tuesday and Wednesday answering questions about his claim that British tabloids had unlawfully snooped on his life throughout his childhood and young adulthood.

He alleges that the Mirror newspapers hacked phones, bugged vehicles and used other illicit methods to obtain personal information they splashed as royal scoops.

He said the intrusion poisoned relations with friends, teachers and girlfriends – and even caused friction with his brother Prince William – and led to “bouts of depression and paranoia.”

MGN has apologised for one instance in which it hired a private investigator to dig up dirt on Harry, which was not among the claims he has brought. It either denies or does not admit his claims.

Harry (38) is one of four claimants whose lawsuits against MGN are being heard together at the High Court in London.

Hearings are due to last until the end of June, with the judge, Timothy Fancourt, likely to deliver his ruling several weeks later.

Harry left royal life in 2020, citing unbearable media scrutiny and alleged racism toward his wife, Meghan, and is on a mission to reform the British media. He is also suing two other newspaper publishers over alleged hacking.

Meanwhile, the mother of the late TV presenter Caroline Flack today claimed her daughter “knew her phone was being hacked” at the time she was seeing Prince Harry.

Christine Flack told Channel 5 TV that she believes Harry is "very brave" for suing the publisher of the Mirror at the High Court in London over alleged unlawful information-gathering.

"He is getting such an awful lot of stick as well, and the people that are reporting on him are the same people he is in court against,” she said.

Former Coronation Street actor Nikki Sanderson, was the focus of the remainder of today’s proceedings.

At the centre of the prince’s legal battle, are 147 stories published from 1996 to 2010 by Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) titles which he claims used information obtained through unlawful means, such as phone hacking.

The articles include Harry's date with Gladiators star, a story about him leaving a party with Caroline Flack which was published in The People on April 19, 2009.

Harry said he was "shocked" and "livid" that photographers knew where he and Ms Flack would be and that he believed it came from information from his, a friend's or Ms Flack's voicemails. MGN said it came from a photo agency and that there is no evidence of phone hacking.

The prince is among a host of celebrities seeking to sue MGN, claiming journalists at its titles were linked to illegal information gathering and that senior editors and executives at MGN knew about and approved of alleged unlawful activities carried out between 1991 and 2011.

He claims reporters used methods including phone hacking, gaining information by deception, and the use of private investigators for unlawful activities.

He claims reporters used methods including phone hacking, gaining information by deception, and the use of private investigators for unlawful activities.

Prince Harry gave testimony in the witness box on Tuesday and Wednesday, with his court appearance focusing on 33 sample articles from the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People newspapers.

He became the first senior British royal to give evidence in court since 1891, when Edward VII took to the witness box in a slander trial.

"I believe phone-hacking was on an industrial scale across at least three of the papers at the time and that is beyond doubt," Harry said on Wednesday.

Some 33 articles, dated between 1996 and 2009, were selected for examination during the trial of Harry's contested claim against MGN.

MGN, now owned by Reach, has previously admitted its titles were involved in phone-hacking and settled more than 600 claims. But its lawyer Andrew Green has said there was no mobile phone data nor any evidence to show Prince Harry was a victim.

MGN claims the stories came from a range of sources, including information disclosed by royal households or other royals, freelance journalists and news agencies as well as confidential sources with "extensive" royal contacts.

Harry used his 55-page witness statement in the case to lash out at the standards of British government and democracy.

He accused the British government of being “scared” of the press, and said: “Our country is judged globally by the state of our press and our government – both of which I believe are at rock bottom.”

“Democracy fails when your press fails to scrutinise and hold the government accountable, and instead choose to get into bed with them so they can ensure the status quo.”

And the royal added: “If they’re supposedly policing society, who on earth is policing them, when even the government is scared of alienating them because position is power. It is incredibly worrying for the entire UK.”

Downing Street said it would not comment on Prince Harry’s remarks about the government as they were part of a live legal process. But furious Tory MPs fired back at Harry’s “unwise” comments – urging him to keep out of British politics, or renounce his title and “stand for election” if he wanted to be politician.

Harry’s explosive witness statement also claimed:

• Stories about rumours his father was James Hewitt were aimed at ousting him from the royal family.

• Revealed he was worried Eton would kick him out after stories about drug-taking.

• Claimed he was “only 5pc” funded by the taxpayer as a working royal.

• Said he has never received a bill for a mobile phone, as this was dealt with by the royal family.

Harry said he felt “physically sick” over payments to private investigators in relation to his late mother Princess Diana.

He blamed the tabloids for “inciting hatred and harassment” in his private life – claiming he was depicted as a “playboy prince”, a “thicko” and a “drug-taker” when he was younger.

Harry said he was “shocked and appalled” by the number of payments made by MGN titles to private investigators.

He said he wanted to hold former Mirror editor Piers Morgan and others accountable for “their vile and entirely unjustified behaviour”. Mr Morgan has denied any knowledge of phone hacking, and has said he was “not going to take lectures on privacy invasion”.

Harry said his “acute paranoia” of being constantly under surveillance was not misplaced after discovering private investigator payments related to his ex-girlfriend, Chelsy Davy.

“Had she not been in a relationship with me, she would never have had to endure such a horrific experience at the hands of MGN’s journalists,” he said.

Harry added: “There are even eight private investigator payments made in relation to my mother, which I have only learnt of since bringing my claim. This makes me feel physically sick.”

Harry also said the media felt they “owned” him – but insisted that the state paid for only 5pc of his activities.

“Eton had a zero-drugs policy in place, and I was extremely worried I was going to be expelled.”

He also said a story published in 2002 about him smoking cannabis had a “huge impact” on his life. “Eton had a zero-drugs policy in place, and I was extremely worried I was going to be expelled.”

The royal also told the court that he ended up “playing up to a lot of the headlines” about his playboy lifestyle as a teenager and in his early twenties.

“I ended up feeling as though I was playing up to a lot of the headlines and stereotypes that they wanted to pin on me mainly because I thought that, if they are printing this rubbish about me and people were believing it, I may as well ‘do the crime’, so to speak,” he said.

Harry said he “doubted the loyalty” of people around him, including his former nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke and former royal equerry Mark Dyer. “It’s only now, realising what the defendant’s journalists were doing … that I can see how much of my life was wasted on this paranoia,” he said.

Prince Harry said he was never a mobile account holder or received a bill for his mobile phone – saying it was handled “by the Institution, presumably for security purposes although that now seems rather ironic”.