- Prince Harry and Baroness Doreen Lawrence are joined by Elton John in group action
- Private Investigators allege that landlines were tapped – a much more serious offence than voicemail interception
- Actresses Liz Hurley and Sadie Frost also suing the controversial paper.
- Elton John’s husband David Furnish and ex-Justice Minister Sir Simon Hughes claim they were targeted by illegal newsgathering
- Ben Noakes, a friend of Paul McCartney and his ex-Wife Heather Mills, alleges that his voicemails were intercepted
- However, the paper’s long-serving Editor-in-Chief Paul Dacre denied his papers hacked phones at the Leveson Inquiry
- If he is proved wrong, Dacre potentially faces 51 weeks in jail for misleading a public inquiry
By Graham Johnson
The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday are being sued for phone hacking and landline tapping.
A ‘vanguard’ of eight claims have been issued at the High Court.
The claimants include:
- Baroness Doreen Lawrence, justice campaigner and mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence
- Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex
- Elton John, singer, songwriter
- David Furnish, filmmaker and Elton John’s husband
- Elizabeth Hurley, actress and model
- Sadie Frost, actress
- Simon Hughes, Ex-Lib Dem MP and Justice Minister
- Ben Noakes, writer and campaigner
The most shocking name on the list is Baroness Doreen Lawrence of Clarendon, 69.
Her son Stephen Lawrence was brutally murdered in 1993 in a racist knife attack in Eltham, South East London.
But her agony was increased when prejudiced and corrupt cops failed to bring the killers to justice for nearly a decade, while the gang taunted the Lawrence family with insults and lies.
Now the life peer’s lawyers claim that the paper who fought for justice were also secretly and illegally spying on her, in a bid to protect the reputation of its journalists.
The allegations have sent shockwaves across Fleet Street.
Sources close to the litigation claim that the case is not just about ‘a bunch of celebrities trying to protect their privacy.’
The source told Expose.News: ‘The litigation against the Daily Mail is about finding out the truth.
‘It’s not about a load of moaning celebrities, trying to stop newspapers from printing stories about their personal lives.
Source close to the litigation
‘It’s not about money.
‘Three of the eight claimants are not celebrities.
‘One of the them is a victim of crime.’
Prince Harry is the most high profile claimant.
His legal team will allege that reporters at the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday paid investigators to target his girlfriends and friends.
ANL is the third newspaper group that the Duke of Sussex is suing for unlawful information gathering.
In a separate action, he is also suing the MoS for libel, following his wife Megan Markle’s successful defamation case against the Sunday papers last year.
His cases against Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers and Reach’s Mirror Group Newspapers have been rumbling on since October 2019, and may go to trial later this year or next.
The legal action comes after more than 50 stories were published on Expose.News and its sister site BylineInvestigates.com revealing unlawful information gathering at Mail papers.
The eight claimants have sent ‘Letters Before Action’ to the publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday.
Elton John, David Furnish, Liz Hurley, Sadie Frost, Simon Hughes and Ben Noakes have previously settled hacking claims against the News of the World.
Simon Hughes made history earlier this year when he successfully settled a claim in the first ‘Sun-only case,’ which his lawyers claim proves that hacking definitely occurred at the daily red-top.
This new strand of litigation is expected to open the floodgates for many more claims against The Sun.
The cases against Associated News Limited are being led by barrister David Sherborne of 5RB chambers, who also runs most of the managed phone hacking litigation against News Group Newspapers and Mirror Group.
The lead solicitor is Callum Galbraith, of Hamlins, who represents Sadie Frost.
Doreen Lawrence, Elton John, David Furnish and Liz Hurley are represented by Anjlee Sangani at Gunnercooke.
Sir Simon Hughes and Ben Noakes are represented by ThomsonHeath.
Between them, this group of lawyers have brought hundreds of claims for phone hacking against News Group and Mirror Group.
The Docket – IOM’s crime reports