Prince Harry in UK court as privacy case against newspaper begins

Britain's Prince Harry, who now lives in the US, made a surprise appearance at the High Court in London on Monday as his legal action against a newspaper group for breach of his privacy began.

The 38-year-old Duke of Sussex is among a group of celebrity claimants, including singer Elton John and actor Liz Hurley, who are suing the Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) for "abhorrent criminal activity" and "gross breaches of privacy" as part of alleged phone-tapping.

ANL, the publisher of Daily Mail newspaper, denies the allegations as "preposterous smears" and Monday's preliminary hearing will consider their legal arguments for a judge to decide whether the case will go further to a full hearing.

A spokesperson for ANL also said the allegations were "unsubstantiated and highly defamatory claims, based on no credible evidence".

The four-day preliminary hearing is set to include ANL's bid for the claims to be dismissed without a trial.

The legal action was announced in October 2022, when law firm Hamlins representing Prince Harry set out a number of allegations against the newspaper group, including hiring of private investigators to secretly place listening devices inside people's cars and homes and commissioning of individuals to surreptitiously listen into and record people's private telephone calls, among others.

In a statement released at the time, the newspaper group said: "We utterly and unambiguously refute these preposterous smears which appear to be nothing more than a pre-planned and orchestrated attempt to drag the Mail titles into the phone hacking scandal concerning articles up to 30 years old.

"These unsubstantiated and highly defamatory claims based on no credible evidence appear to be simply a fishing expedition by claimants and their lawyers, some of whom have already pursued cases elsewhere," it said.