According to the documents that were filed in court, Associated Newspapers, which publishes the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, and MailOnline, has requested that the lawsuits, which were initiated in October, be dismissed without a trial taking place. This request was made to the High Court in London.
The publisher of the British tabloid The Daily Mail has filed a motion to dismiss cases brought by Prince Harry, artist Elton John, and other individuals who allege that their privacy rights were violated in various ways, including through the tapping of their phones.
According to the documents that were filed in court, Associated Newspapers, which publishes the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, and MailOnline, has requested that the lawsuits, which were initiated in October, be dismissed without a trial taking place. This request was made to the High Court in London.
Doreen Lawrence, the mother of Black teenager Stephen Lawrence, who was killed in a racist attack in 1993, is also a plaintiff in the case. Other plaintiffs in the case include the actresses Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost, the filmmaker David Furnish, who is married to Elton John, and Elizabeth Hurley’s husband.
In a statement issued in October, their attorneys claimed that the individuals had become aware of “highly distressing” evidence revealing that they had been victims of breaches of privacy committed by Associated Newspapers. These breaches of privacy included the tapping of people’s phones and the bugging of people’s cars and homes, among other activities.
Associated Newspapers issued a statement in which it responded by saying that it “completely and unequivocally” disputed the charges, which it referred to as “ridiculous slander.”
Late in the month of March or early in the month of April, its application to stop the case on the basis that the claims were brought out of time is scheduled to be heard. A request for comment that was made to the publisher’s spokeswoman was not immediately met with a response.
An email request for a comment was issued to the law firm representing the plaintiffs in the case, but the firm did not immediately respond to the request.
This litigation is just one of several legal cases that Prince Harry is now conducting against media in the United Kingdom. In his memoir “Spare,” which was released this week, as well as in TV appearances that accompanied its release, he also accused other members of the royal family of leaking material to tabloid tabloids about him and his wife Meghan.