Imogen James
Reporting from the High Court

The court hears more details about Doreen Lawrence's claims.

The first article in focus concerns Lawrence's reaction to the announcement of a public inquiry into her son's murder. Sherborne says there is "no explanation" of how journalists gained the information about her reaction.

Journalist Stephen Wright has never offered an explanation as to where this came from, Sherborne says, but he adds there is an invoice to Christine Hart from this period.

Earlier, we heard Sherborne say journalist Stephen Wright appeared on invoices for payments to "well-known blagger" Christine Hart.

The description of the invoice is vague, but Hart was explicit, Sherborne says, in the transcripts of her interview with journalist James Hanning.

We are played this out loud in court. Hart says Wright got her to ring Lawrence on the pretext that she was ringing from another newspaper - the Guardian.

"I'm pretty sure that I was the one that got that quote from her that's in the story," she says in the recording. "Nobody liked the Mail."

She claims she was "definitely" asked to get quotes from Doreen Lawrence by the Daily Mail.

Imogen James
Reporting from the High Court

Sherborne is going through individuals' claims, starting with Baroness Doreen Lawrence.

He first reminds the court about the murder of her son, Stephen Lawrence, who was stabbed to death by a gang of white youths in Eltham, south-east London, in 1993.

Sherborne says Baroness Lawrence felt that she was targeted by the press as she tried to seek the truth about her son's murder.

There are five articles in her claims, that she alleges were created with the use of unlawful news gathering. They were published by the Daily Mail between 1997 and 2007, and were all written by Stephen Wright.

Imogen James
Reporting from the High Court

We now move onto the individual claims. The group of celebrities filed them in October 2022, and have been made to go to the "most aggressive responses" by Associated papers, Sherborne says.

Sherborne says they are "victims", and have had to uncover unlawful conduct themselves.

He says ANL has shown not the "slightest shred of accountability".

It's not the article which was published, it's the underlying alleged unlawful activity, which is the key to this, Sherborne says.

What really matters is not the nature of the information, but "it's the fact that the defendant used unlawful means" to gather the information, the lawyer argues.

Imogen James
Reporting from the High Court

The final investigator David Sherborne is discussing is Gavin Burrows.

Burrows is a big name in this case. He appeared to have signed a long statement detailing what he knew about the use of illegal methods, but later claimed his signature had been forged.

Sherborne says it's implausible that the signature was forged.

Burrows is included in the 2003 contact list of the Mail's newsdesk, Sherborne points out. This confirms the fact that ANL used him, Sherborne claims.

He then brings up a tweet that Burrows posted a link to a Sky News article, when it was announced that Prince Harry and others were taking this action.

The tweet says: "sorry everyone, I've had to sit on this so long... power to the people, not the press.

"I owned up and assisted all parties in the action they are now bringing by being honest about what I was involved in regarding said parties."

These are "pretty clear unequivocal admissions" by Burrows, Sherborne alleges.

Imogen James
Reporting from the High Court

The court hears about Lee Harpin, who was known as the "dauphin" of phone hacking. He was involved in a number of "infamous hacking episodes", Sherborne says.

He is not being called to give evidence by the Mail in this trial.

He was regularly used by Mail on Sunday royal correspondent Katie Nicholl, Sherborne outlines.

Sherborne alleges the fact he is not coming into court to testify against wrongdoing "tells you everything" about how he got his information.

Imogen James
Reporting from the High Court

Lawyer David Sherborne next brings up investigator Jonathan Rees.

Sherborne reads out the witness statement by former Metropolitan police officer undercover operative Derek Haslam.

Haslam writes that Rees used to brag about the type of information he could get, including even the Queen's medical records. He would also boast about how much he could earn "from newspapers like the Mail".

Haslam alleges that Rees admitted that he often did hacking work, landline tapping and burglaries for the Mail.

He was very interested in the murder of Stephen Lawrence, the court hears, because it generated so much publicity.

Haslam says he knows that Rees was doing this unlawful work on Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Stephen's mother. He alleges that Rees got to know the security system that protected the Lawrence memorial.

Sherborne claims Steven Wright, of the Daily Mail, used Ross multiple times.

Imogen James
Reporting from the High Court

After the break, David Sherborne begins by discussing private investigator John Ross, a former Metropolitan police officer.

Ross was paid on a number of occasions for a number of stories, Sherborne alleges.

Sherborne brings up an email now, sent in 2011. It was a list compiled by Mail on Sunday managing editor John Wellington, sent to Liz Hartley in their legal department, that shows a table of payments to John Ross.

Sherborne alleges the evidence confirms that Ross was providing information from his "corrupt connections" to police officers.

He cites one payment of £1,000 on 1 November 2001, titled '[redacted] cousin burgles'.

This was, he writes, about an ongoing investigation into a burglary at the home of the second cousin to the Queen.

Sherborne's written argument says it can be inferred this was an unlawful payment to a police officer for information, from both the title of the invoice and the fact the Mail on Sunday published an article the same day headlined: "Robbers target Queen's cousin for second time".

Imogen James
Reporting from the High Court

We're back in court now after a lunch break.

The press seats have filled, and Prince Harry has strolled in very casually, standing next to his seat, hands in pockets.

At one point, he surveys us journalists – we're sat in rows behind him.

When we resume, we expect to hear more from his lawyer, David Sherborne. He's spent the morning naming various ANL journalists and private investigators he alleges they used to gain information unlawfully.

Image source, Getty Images

Joining Prince Harry and five other claimants in this case is Elton John, who says he felt his home was "violated" by alleged unlawful news gathering.

In written submissions by barrister David Sherborne, Elton John and his husband David Furnish say they're "horrified" that their personal friendships were allegedly used against them to "steal information".

The couple accuses the Daily Mail publishers of "invasion of medical details" surrounding the birth of their son Zachary and the "stealing" of his birth certificate "before we even had a chance to see it ourselves".

In his written submissions, defence lawyer Antony White KC, who is representing the publishers, says the couple's claims are "unsupported by any evidence before the court and utterly baseless".

Image source, Reuters

Today, Prince Harry's long-awaited trial against the publishers of the Daily Mail has begun - and so far we've heard from his barrister, David Sherborne, whose opening statement has kick-started proceedings.

Sherborne has used several examples to accuse Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) of illegally gathering information, primarily through private investigators.

Here's what we've heard this morning:

• Sherborne alleges there was evidence of "clear, systematic and sustained use of unlawful information gathering" at the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday
• He's made multiple references to a private investigation agency known as ELI. The barrister accuses the Mail of using ELI to find bank details, "intimate information", including the termination of Sadie Frost's pregnancy
• Sherborne alleges that one private investigator earned over $1m (£745,000) from the Daily Mail over 20 years gaining information in the US, and another voice actor and investigator earned £11,000 in one month
• He also accuses the Mail of using private investigators to find flight details, including the seat number, of Prince Harry's former girlfriend Chelsy Davy

As a reminder, the Daily Mail's publishers have denied all wrongdoing and will be given opportunity to respond to the claims as the case progresses.

Image source, Reuters

In court so far, we've heard from barrister David Sherborne who is providing the claimants' opening submissions. These opening statements from the claimant and defendant can be very long – and so it may take several days to get through them both.

This isn't Sherborne's first high-profile case. The media and privacy barrister represented many victims in the Leveson Inquiry, which examined the extent of phone hacking in the media.

He's helped celebrities like Harry Styles and Amy Winehouse get injunctions against paparazzi and also represented Colleen Rooney in the high-profile "Wagatha Christie" trial.

Sherborne represented Prince Harry in a case against the Sun newspaper's publishers. News Group Newspapers agreed to settle in January last year.

Imogen James
Reporting from the High Court

After going through many private investigators, the claimants' lawyer says now is a good time for a lunch break.

I can't help but agree. It has been an intense start.

Prince Harry is among the first to leave court, walking right past me and flanked by a legal team as he does.

We'll be back at 14:00 GMT.

Imogen James
Reporting from the High Court

The focus turns to Prince Harry's former girlfriend, Chelsy Davy.

Sherborne shows an email which includes information about a flight she took in 2007. It shows her seat number, flight times and travel plans.

It's alleged Daily Mail royal editor Rebecca English used the services of investigator Mike Behr to obtain this information.

Sherborne claims there is no way anyone reading this could have thought the information obtained was done so legally.

A later email exchange is then shown between English and Behr from 2013. In it, Behr shares the flight details of Prince Harry.

English acknowledges this, and Sherborne says "she knows perfectly well what he's doing", referring to the alleged blagging by Behr.

Sherborne notes that Prince Harry travelled using a pseudonym. This would make it much harder to find any information about his travel plans.

English then names Prince Harry's protection officer. Behr replies with the details of the flight, showing the number and times.

Imogen James
Reporting from the High Court

Sherborne is continuing through his list of private investigators he says were used by Associated Newspapers Limited.

In short, he brings them up, gives an example of a story that he says uses unlawfully gathered information, and then often shows either the investigators witness statement, or an invoice, which appears to show payments to these investigators from ANL journalists.

We've just heard about Glenn Mulcaire. Sherborne shows material, which appears to show Mulcaire sourced material from Sadie Frost's voicemail.

It alleges this was passed on to News of the World journalist Greg Miskiw, who passed it on to Chris Anderson at the Mail on Sunday.

Imogen James
Reporting from the High Court

The next private investigator discussed by David Sherborne is Christine Hart, described in court documents as a "well-known blagger".

Sherborne says there is evidence ANL paid Christine Hart between 1998 and 2018.

He says there were payments made in mid-September 1998 in relation to an article about Oasis singer Liam Gallagher's divorce from Patsy Kensit.

Sherborne alleges Hart is "directly" linked to several articles that he claims used information gathered unlawfully.

Hart is a main figure in the case brought by Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Sherborne says. He alleges one incident where she pretended to be a journalist from the Guardian, as it was believed Baroness Lawrence would be more likely to speak to her in that case.

Sean Coughlan
Royal correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

There are 14 articles that Prince Harry will allege used unlawfully gathered information, including using private investigators, which were published by Associated publications between 2001 and 2013, according to court documents.

Among them is a claim that an article was based on intrusion into a conversation between Prince Harry and his brother Prince William over a memorial for their mother and the planned involvement of Sir Elton John in the project.

There is also a claim that a story about photos of Diana, Princess of Wales, taken in the wake of her fatal car crash, used information gathered unlawfully from a "private and intimate" conversations between Prince Harry and Prince William.

Many of these allegations involve articles about his personal relationships, including with Chelsy Davy. This includes allegations about finding Davy's exact flight details and seat number on a journey to South Africa.

Associated Newspapers is rejecting all the allegations of using unlawful information and its legal teams will say there are legitimate explanations for all of the disputed articles.

The newspaper group will also argue Prince Harry's claims should be barred as out of time and will challenge the suggestion Harry didn't realise until 2020 that he should investigate the possibility of illegal information gathering by Associated Newspapers.

Imogen James
Reporting from the High Court

David Sherborne now brings up Jonathan Stafford, a voice actor and private investigator used by Associated Newspapers Limited.

Stafford was "plainly" getting information by blagging, Sherborne alleges, calling it his "specialism".

He worked for the features department, and the news desk, Sherborne sets out.

To give an example of how prolifically Sherborne says Stafford was used, he shows the court an example where one months' work was billed at £11,000.

Imogen James
Reporting from the High Court

We move onto another private investigator now - Daniel Portley-Hanks, or 'Detective Danno'.

He says he received over $1m (£745,000) from the Daily Mail after more than 20 years of work for them.

Hanks was based in the US. He says he gained information such as social security numbers, which were then passed around between journalists. These are similar to the UK's national insurance numbers.

David Sherborne raises an article written about the relationship between Yoko Ono and her daughter. The social security number of Yoko Ono, her daughter and son were all allegedly provided by Hanks.

Sherborne says Daily Mail journalist Sharon Churcher frequently used Hanks, and that the provision of social security numbers means, he alleges, it must have been known the information was unlawful.

Imogen James
Reporting from the High Court

David Dillon, Mail on Sunday News Desk executive, is now the subject of David Sherborne's opening argument.

He is alleging that Dillon approved invoices which were for private investigator Steve Whittamore, after journalists asked him to track down the celebrity owners of various vehicles.

This would be done by giving the registration plate for a vehicle to Whittamore, who would then identify the owner.

Dillon also commissioned Whittamore, the investigator's evidence says.

Whittamore also says people using him knew he sourced the information through what he calls the "dark arts".

Imogen James
Reporting from the High Court

David Sherborne is now discussing "blagging" calls. This is when someone impersonates another person, to gain information about them that is private.

He speaks about private investigator Steve Whittamore, who has submitted evidence that he practised phone blagging.

Sherborne says Whittamore has claimed it would have been known by those employing him that he was gaining information unlawfully.

He points to evidence, in the form of invoices, which shows the proof of blagging is "expressly there".

Well after private investigator Steve Whittamore was convicted of breaching information laws, ANL remained his "best customers", until 2007, Sherborne alleges.

For context, Whittamore was convicted in 2005 after an investigation during which all his records and payment invoices were seized.