ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

Skip to main content

Prince Harry due to testify in phone hacking case in June

Share
LONDON -

Prince Harry is expected to testify in a London courtroom in June in one of his phone hacking lawsuits against British tabloids, lawyers said Wednesday.

A trial in a case involving the Duke of Sussex and three others against the publisher of The Mirror is due to start May 9 in the High Court and last six to seven weeks.

While the trial begins three days after the coronation of his father, King Charles III, Harry is is not expected to take the witness stand until early or mid-June, according to a preliminary schedule of witnesses. It's not clear if Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, will attend the coronation.

Harry's testimony will be the second time he's been in the High Court in three months after his surprise appearance last week in a similar case.

Harry sat through parts of three days of hearings to see if the phone hacking suit he brought with Elton John, actresses Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost, and others survives a legal challenge by the publisher of The Daily Mail.

His presence in court for the dense legal arguments indicated the importance of the case to Harry in his broader battle against the British press. He has several lawsuits against the news media and has said he wants to reform the tabloid press as part of his life's work.

British tabloid publishers have paid hundreds of millions of dollars to settle claims dating back well over a decade that journalists and private investigators hired by them hacked the voicemails of celebrities, politicians and others in the public eye.

The case against Mirror Group Newspapers alleges that Harry's voicemail messages were intercepted.

The Mirror publisher is contesting the claims and argues they were brought too late.

The May trial is a test case by four claimants against the Mirror out of a larger group of well-known people who sued the publisher.

Other claimants are Coronation Street actress Nikki Sanderson, comedian Paul Whitehouse's ex-wife, Fiona Wightman, and actor Michael Turner.

CTVNews.ca ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

The province's public security minister said he was "shocked" Thursday amid reports that a body believed to be that of a 14-year-old boy was found this week near a Hells Angels hideout near Quebec City.

Shamattawa RCMP are searching for a missing six-year-old boy who hasn’t been seen since Wednesday morning.

B.C.'s police watchdog is investigating the death of a woman who was shot by the RCMP after allegedly barricading herself in a room with a toddler early Thursday morning.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault is calling on the Bloc Quebecois to topple the Trudeau government next Wednesday and trigger a federal election.

Local Spotlight

They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.

Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.

It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.

A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.

David Krumholtz, known for roles like Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause and physicist Isidor Rabi in Oppenheimer, has spent the latter part of his summer filming horror flick Altar in Winnipeg. He says Winnipeg is the most movie-savvy town he's ever been in.

Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one tiger salamander, let alone the thousands one local woman says recently descended on her childhood home.

A daytrip to the backcountry turned into a frightening experience for a Vancouver couple this weekend.