A lawsuit by Prince Harry, Elton John and five other public figures accusing a newspaper publisher of using private detectives and listening devices to illegally snoop on them should go to a full trial, a British judge ruled Friday.
Judge Matthew Nicklin rejected a bid by the publisher of the Daily Mail to dismiss the case without trial, saying defence lawyers had not delivered a "knockout blow" to the claimants' case.
The claimants, who include John's husband David Furnish and actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost, accuse publisher Associated Newspapers Ltd. of unlawfully gathering information by bugging homes and cars, recording phone conversations and using deceit to obtain medical records.
Harry said the publisher targeted him and the people closest to him by unlawfully hacking voicemails, tapping landlines, obtaining itemized phone bills and the flight information of his then-girlfriend, Chelsy Davy.
Associated Newspapers strongly denies the allegations and asked the judge to throw out the case. At hearings in March its lawyers argued that the claims --- which date as far back as 1993 -- were brought too late and that claimants were relying on confidential evidence the papers turned over to a 2012 public inquiry into tabloid wrongdoing.
Nicklin ruled that the claimants cannot rely on the documents handed over to the 2012 Leveson inquiry, which was sparked by revelations of phone hacking by the now-defunct News of the World tabloid. But he said the case can go ahead because the claims "have a real prospect of succeeding."
"Associated has not been able to deliver a `knockout blow' to the claims of any of these claimants," the judge said in a written ruling.
He rejected the publisher's argument that the case should be dismissed because the claims had not been brought within six years of the alleged offence.
"In my judgment, each claimant has a real prospect of demonstrating that Associated, or those for whom Associated is responsible, concealed from him/her the relevant facts upon which a worthwhile claim of unlawful information gathering could have been advanced," the judge wrote.
The judge said the claimants, who also include anti-racism campaigner Doreen Lawrence and former politician Simon Hughes, could ask the government to lift restrictions on using the confidential documents, or Associated Newspapers could voluntarily turn over the evidence. But he said "that is not something that the court can order on this application."
The case is one of several lawsuits brought in the U.K. by Harry, who has made it a personal mission to tame Britain's tabloid press. He blames the British media for the death of his mother, Princess Diana, who was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997 while being pursued by paparazzi.
Harry and his wife Meghan cited press intrusion as a reason for their decision to quit royal duties in 2020 and move to California.
The judge said a new hearing in the case for Nov. 21. No date has been set for the trial, where Prince Harry could give evidence. He unexpectedly attended the March hearings in the Associated Newspapers case, though he did not take the stand.
In June he became the first senior member of the royal family to testify in court in more than a century when he gave evidence in a separate phone hacking lawsuit against the publishers of the Daily Mirror.
Harry is also suing the publisher of The Sun newspaper alongside actor Hugh Grant. That case is scheduled to go to trial early next year.
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A Manitoba man convicted of murder 50 years ago has been acquitted. Clarence Woodhouse was found guilty in 1974 of fatally beating and stabbing a restaurant worker in downtown Winnipeg.
When an Ontario doctor refused to sign off on a mammogram for 38-year-old Sidra Lone, the mother of four says she was left with no choice but to lie.
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More than 180 people were evacuated Thursday from a Ryanair Boeing passenger jet after it caught fire while taxiing to take off at Brindisi Airport in southern Italy.
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Staff at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary in Prince Albert seized a sizeable load of contraband on Monday, according to the federal correctional service.
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One person is dead after a floatplane carrying three people crashed Wednesday evening in a remote inlet on British Columbia's central coast.
For more than two months, a Squamish, B.C., man has been leading his community and a local wildlife rescue on a wild goose chase – literally.
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WestJet has changed its operations at the Lethbridge Airport, and it means there's now only a single daily flight from Lethbridge to Calgary, down from three flights a day, as offered previously.
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A man charged with first-degree murder in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., doesn't have to sit in the prisoner's box when his trial begins next month, a judge with the Superior Court of Justice has ruled.
After receiving complaints about off-road vehicles, police in Greater Sudbury laid more than a dozen charges in a recent safety blitz.
Aiming to bolster public trust and accountability – and help with investigations -- police in Sault Ste. Marie have equipped their vehicles with cameras.
He may not have logged the fastest time or even gone the full distance, but residents of a Newfoundland town agree the goat who unexpectedly joined the local weekend half marathon was the event's undisputed champion.
A mother in a community where the cost of living is one of the highest in the country says grocery prices are 'inhumane' and retailers are putting profits ahead of people’s basic human right to food.
A soccer game in England on Tuesday night drove a spike in online traffic across the Atlantic to a website launched by the Newfoundland and Labrador government.
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