A KEY witness in a privacy lawsuit brought by Prince Harry and other figures against the Daily Mail told London’s High Court on Monday that the claimants had been misled and denied signing a statement against the publisher.
Prince Harry, the younger son of King Charles, and six others, including singer Elton John, have accused Associated Newspapers’ tabloids of unlawful information gathering, including phone-hacking, over 30 years.
Associated, which also publishes the Mail on Sunday, has denied wrongdoing.
The trial has heard evidence from Harry, other claimants, and current and former journalists and staff at Associated.
On Monday, private investigator Gavin Burrows said the lawsuit “was based on a pack of lies”.
WITNESS: STATEMENT 'HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ME'
In August 2021, the claimants’ lawyers said Burrows signed a witness statement saying he had “targeted hundreds, possibly thousands of people” for Associated, including tapping landlines, hacking voicemails, and obtaining information by deception.
Those claims form a key part of the case.
Burrows later told Associated’s legal team he had not made the statement and that his signature had been faked. He told the court he first learned about the claims attributed to him through a newspaper report.
“This statement has nothing to do with me,” Burrows, who gave evidence from an undisclosed overseas location as he said he and his family had received threats, told the court by videolink.
“You have got to explain to your claimants how you have been conned,” he said during exchanges with their lawyer David Sherborne, who was given permission to treat him as a “hostile” witness. “This thing is based on a pack of lies.”
Associated has described the case as manufactured and funded by opponents of the press, including the late motor racing boss and privacy campaigner Max Mosley. It said a “research team” assisting the claimants’ lawyers had paid witnesses to provide evidence.
Sherborne accused Burrows of lying and said he changed his evidence after a dispute with Graham Johnson, a journalist convicted of phone-hacking who now writes about unlawful tabloid practices.
Johnson has told the court that Burrows had agreed to a book deal and to help with documentaries for which he was paid 75,000 pounds, and that their relationship broke down in early 2022.
Burrows said he was unaware he would be used in the Associated case until January 2023, when he became “absolutely furious” that his name was being linked. He said he approached the publisher because he believed one of the claimants, racism campaigner Doreen Lawrence, was being misled.
“The whole thing is a thing of fiction,” he said. He told the court he had never worked for or been paid by Associated.
Burrows is the final witness in the trial, which began in January. Closing submissions are due later this month.
(With inputs from Reuters)
