I’m at a school in East London today where 47% of students have had results downgraded from teachers predictions. Some predicted Cs have been given a U. Some A* predictions reduced to a B.
MGM Lawyer “Do you recollect seeing any of those articles at the time of publication”
Harry: “When I was going through them with my legal team it certainly jogged memories.”
Lawyer asks how they could cause distress if he didn’t read them at the time.
Harry being quizzed now over an article he complained about which focused on his 18th birthday party. Green says essentially Harry gave an interview to PA which was quoted in newspapers including the Mirror. “The private information has been revealed by you in an interview.”
Article in Mirror about Harry having lunch with friends. “People are invited to call in (to the paper) if they spotted someone famous,” says Green. Adds that Harry would have walked down busy streets to get there. “I don’t walk down the street,” says Harry.
Andrew Green KC, representing MGN, says an article Harry’s team says an article his team claims was obtained unlawfully about his mother visiting him at school on his birthday was actually announced by the palace on PA the day before.
Interesting callers to
@mrjamesob
One Tory voter for the first time in the last election, angry at the PM - but more so at the lack of challenge from the Conservative backbench. Another calling them “nodding donkeys.” Backbenchers must feel the heat of this turning on them.
Andrew Green KC, representing MGN, is essentially arguing that Harry was generally upset by press intrusion - but he can’t point to particular articles that caused distress because many of them he probably didn’t read at the time.
“There was no need for the Daily Mirror to use unlawful means because the information had already been published in the Daily Mail and the Sunday mirror” says Green “Isn’t it a little unfair to claim it was obtained by phone hacking?”
“Hooray Harry Dumped” Harry describes the headline as “extremely hurtful.” Green asks if Harry thinks the “hooray” is a celebration? Harry believes it might be. Green says the “hooray” is in respect of his “hooray lifestyle” “It’s not celebrating the demise of your relationship”
On a break now. Harry pushing back better today. Bringing it back to the question of why payments were being made to investigators by the paper.
“The fact that these payments were referred to as ‘project Harry’ was incredibly disturbing,” he says.
You maintain the articles were obtained from unlawful gathering?
Whose phone was hacked?
Harry says he’s not sure but suggests the doctors.
“Are we not in the realms of total speculation?” says Green.
“I haven’t heard a word from you in two years” Maggie Oliver tells GMP chief Steven Watson as she criticises his force for continuing to fail young women who report sexual crimes.
Green is saying that info about the Princes going rock climbing instead of attending a pageant, was already in the public domain and published in the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday before the Daily Mirror article of which he is complaining about.
Harry is read an email that appears to show someone close to his ex-girlfriend offering information on her to a journalist. Harry says this email could have been created by the journalist to make it look like they got info from a legitimate source.
Asked why he wasn’t suing The Record and The Star for a similar story published in the Mirror, he said he didn’t think there was “industrial scale phone hacking” at those papers. Nor evidence of any hacking. Also he says he is “quite busy with other litigations.”
Another article Harry complained about about breaking his thumb is told by MGN lawyer that “much of the reporting about how you broke your thumb happened the day before the article appeared in the daily mirror”
He uses the example of the first article published when he was 11.
Lawyer “If you didn’t read the article at the time how can you say this article caused you distress?”
Harry says “it had an effect on my life and the people around me. My mother in this case.”
Prince Harry arrives in court and one member of the public at the back starts shaking excitedly. One has brought a copy of “Spare” in to see if she can get it signed.
Today King Charles becomes Patron of Cancer Research UK - the first patronage he has taken over from his mother since her death.
This visit is about cancer awareness leading to early diagnosis and focusing on innovation that is saving lives
Cheers in the hospital as King arrives at University College Hosptial London to its Macmillan cancer centre - his first public engagement since his own diagnosis.
Lawyer says the celebrity chef at the restaurant had TV shows and it might have been him seeing an opportunity for some publicity rather than hacking - that led to a photographer being outside the gastro pub.
#harrytrial
Harry is asked if he thinks him getting preferential treatment at Sandhurst is in the public interest - he says he doesn’t think so. Quizzed on what kind of articles about him he thinks would be in the public interest. “A life threatening injury,” he suggests.
The anti-Royal protesters tell me they hadn’t used the megaphone. So the arrest, it seems, was simply for bringing it. “They could have confiscated it,” says one.
PA reported the story. MGN lawyer asks “Have you expressed any concerns to the press association about them divulging information about your thumb?”
Harry says he hasn’t. Confirms also that he hasn’t complained to other papers or BBC who also reported the story.
Well done
@skygillian
for keeping cool and reading the news brilliantly as loud Laurel and Hardy music is blasted through Downing Street by protesters at the gates.
Andrew Green KC, arguing that Diana had spoken to PA about dealing with her children’s feelings over her divorce with Charles - which is similar to an “intrusive” article he is complaining about which talks about his feelings over the divorce.
My thanks again to the courage of the three women who spoke to us about their experiences. A proper inquiry into this could improve the experiences for many others. Also thank you again to the great journalism of
@Sarahcoconnell
and
@LizLaneSky
who I’m very lucky to work with.
Home editor
@JasonFarrellSky
who led Sky News' exclusive story about three women's experiences when taken into Greater Manchester Police custody and say they had been strip-searched unnecessarily by officers, discusses the independent inquiry.
📺 Sky 501
“The mere fact that someone has interest in you doesn’t mean they are using unlawful methods to obtain information does it?” Asks Green
Harry says it does when they were known to use these methods and they were desperate for information on the royals.
Where Harry struggles, is when his cross examiner produces evidence that stories have been obtained by other means, such as palace briefings, or in one instance yesterday, by an interview given by the Duke himself.
Just had to leave the Harry court room because I was sitting in a court official’s seat. Whoops. Thought my view was a bit too good. Have to edit a piece for later, so am afraid I’ll have to stop tweeting on proceedings for now. Try
@SaraHajibagheri
and
@laurabundock
for more.
The work of
@carlheneghan
that has helped change thinking about a drug which may have deformed thousands of children - featured in tonight’s Bitter Pill - 8:30pm on Sky News.
I’m back in court for the Harry case.
Andrew Green KC, representing Mirror Group Newspapers will continue to pick at Harry’s assertion that journalists working for the his client used illegal methods to obtain stories about him.
So they sent out International trade minister Greg Hands, former critic of Truss and Kwarteng’s economic thinking, to defend their mini-budget on the airways this morning, while the chancellor was on his way back to be sacked. Surreal.
“My lord you would have to ask the journalist how they obtained this information.” Harry has said this a few times - No doubt his lawyers suggested this answer knowing that a number of the Mirror journalists have chosen not to come forward to give evidence.
Green lists papers that report on Harry’s trip to Spearmint Rhino. He asks,
“Does it surprise you that some of the articles include quotes from the topless dancer?”
No, it doesn’t surprise him.
Two cancer patients chatting.
The King meets Leslie Woodbridge while she is having her chemotherapy. He’s with the Queen. She’s with husband Roger. She asks “how you feeling?” couldn’t hear the answer.
The
@LibDems
seek to give more support to kinship carers.
@EdwardJDavey
grandparents helped raise him after his parents died. He agreed to talk about it. You will rarely see a politician give such a raw account of why they think something really matters.
The London family we’ve featured twice on Sky News who were stuck in Kabul after having their car stolen at gunpoint by the Taliban, have finally made it to the safety of the airport compound and now with Sky News cameraman
@ShootEditToby
Blair: “Do not give Boris Johnson a majority. He does not deserve it.
This Conservative Party which now expels the likes of Michael Heseltine, disowns the statesmanship of John Major.”
Ultimately, it’s the Prince who has to prove his case. He will have to be a bit more over the facts, and point to elements of the articles where it’s clear the information wasn’t available to the journalist by any other means.
This story has haunted me, propelled me, it has defined my career.
Four of us at Sky News have been gripped by it for years, me
@LizLaneSky
@TSculthorp
@AndreRosso75
Please watch our film Bitter Pill tonight on Sky Documentaries. It will grip you too. I guarantee it.
Many have given their opinions on why protesters are marching through London on Armistice Day. Here’s what the people joining the demonstration have to say.
The King meets musician and former skin cancer patient Steve Young who is on a landmark trial which uses a personalised injection to help stop cancer cells returning.
I should add that I also have a copy of Spare at my feet, for research purposes, and the member of the public asked if I wanted her to get my one signed too. I declined.
Prince Harry arrives in court and one member of the public at the back starts shaking excitedly. One has brought a copy of “Spare” in to see if she can get it signed.
BREAKING. “An independent inquiry into the experience of women and girls who are arrested and taken into police custody in Greater Manchester – particularly where clothing is removed - has been commissioned by Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham,” following Sky News report.
Moving on to 23rd article - about Miss Davey’s anger about Harry going to a lap dancing club with friends. Harry points in his witness statement to the line that Davey “let rip in a string of phone calls.” The details about the calls “were so specific”
Andrew Green KC, representing Mirror Group Newspapers kicks off with an article in The People that Harry had an injured knee at Sandhurst and was being given preferential treatment, being let off marches.
Thanks to Belly’s family for speaking to us exclusively about this sad case of a mother who later died of Coronavirus, after someone claiming to have Covid coughed and spat at her while she was in the workplace.
Is Harry still obsessed with former love Chelsy Davy?
Harry mentions her 118 times in court evidence, Meghan just five times. No wonder Meg’s didn’t show up!
Explosive press conference as
@MaggieOliverUK
tells GMP chief Steven Watson that the failures identified in operation Span, the police investigation into child grooming in Rochdale are “still happening now,” directly after he’d told reporters lessons had been learned.
Mirror lawyer asks “Could they (mirror journalists) have read it the night before” on the telegraph website.
“I see the similarities”
Asked if a crime against a senior royal was worth reporting and in the public interest.
“Yes probably” says Harry.
Lawyer: “Presumably your hostility to the tabloid press predated the discovery of the use of unlawful methods.”
Harry confirms he had a “long-standing” hostility to the press and he didn’t know about the unlawful methods at the time many of the articles were written.
“The government should not be in court bullying people who have been damaged in this way - you should be supporting them.” Manchester Mayor
@AndyBurnhamGM
asks why the govt apologised to Primodos victims 2yrs ago and is now fighting them in court...
Green: Is it your case that whenever the see “palace source” in an article in the daily Mail it’s the product of phone hacking.
I didn’t say that. Responds Harry.
Worth listening
#BCH
to
@BethRigby
debate with
@RobbieGibb
media & govt. As an NHS consultant said to me - journalists have a really important job because this virus is going to attack in waves - if the Govt isn’t held account for mistakes in wave one - they’ll make them again
Tonight’s showing of Bitter Pill at 8:30pm on Sky News will be in memory of Stephen Bagley who died on Boxing Day. A gentle soul, featured in the film, loved and cared for by his amazing family.