Prince Harry has to explain deleted messages
In his trial against British tabloid media, Prince Harry now has to explain the disappearance of messages he exchanged with his ghostwriter. The other side accuses him of "deliberately destroying" potential evidence.
Prince Harry has been waging a bitter legal battle against British tabloid media for several years, accusing them of phone hacking and other surveillance activities. In the ongoing case against the media conglomerate News Group Newspapers (NGN), which publishes the tabloid "The Sun" among others, the 39-year-old found himself in hot water.
According to the "Daily Mail" and the BBC, NGN requested in a preliminary hearing that Judge Timothy Fancourt order Prince Harry and his legal team to present a series of documents. These could potentially contain relevant evidence for the case. Among these documents should be messages that Prince Harry allegedly exchanged with J.R. Moehringer, the ghostwriter of his autobiography "Spare" (English title "Spare"), via the messaging service Signal before the publication of the autobiography in 2023.
According to NGN's legal counsel, these messages were deleted before the publication of the autobiography. In a statement, the lawyer expressed outrage to the "Daily Mail" about alleged cover-up attempts by the royal side. It was "shocking and extraordinary," he said, that the plaintiff had "deliberately destroyed" these potential evidence. Furthermore, it needed to be explained why several Hotmail accounts that Prince Harry had used in the past were no longer accessible.
Judge orders "comprehensive investigation" of royal text messages
Judge Fancourt agreed with NGN's request and confirmed that the message exchange between the Prince and his ghostwriter could be relevant for the case. "I have seen concerning evidence," so Judge Fancourt, "that a large number of potentially relevant documents and confidential messages between the Duke and the ghostwriter of 'Spare' were at some point between 2021 and 2023 deleted."
However, it was unclear what exactly had happened to the allegedly missing messages, so the matter had to be clarified by the testimony of the claimant himself. Furthermore, Judge Fancourt ordered a comprehensive search of Prince Harry's laptop and his SMS and WhatsApp messages to shed light on his communication between 2005 and 2023.
Prince Harry's ghostwriter, J.R. Moehringer, is a notable figure in the entertainment industry, having worked on the Duke's best-selling autobiography "Spare." Given Prince Harry's legal struggles with British tabloids, discussions about the deletion of potential evidence through the destruction of messages are now part of the processes involved in the case.
