Prince Harry tells court: 'Nobody wants to be phone hacked'

The prince said the press had destroyed his relationships, and he believed British media and its government had hit ‘rock bottom’

Prince Harry was back in the witness box at the High Court in London on Wednesday for a second day of grilling over his allegations that British tabloids targeted him with phone-hacking and other unlawful behaviour.

Harry and others are suing Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), publisher of the Daily Mirror and other tabloids, accusing them of widespread unlawful activities. MGN is contesting the claims and denies senior figures were aware of wrongdoing.

Below are quotes and highlights from the courtroom where Harry is facing hours of cross-examination in the witness box over two days:

PHONE-HACKING ON INDUSTRIAL SCALE

"If the court were to find that you were never hacked by any MGN journalist, would you be relieved or would you be disappointed?" MGN lawyer Andrew Green asked Harry.

"That would be speculation," Harry said. "I believe phone-hacking was on an industrial scale across at least three of the papers at the time and that is beyond doubt and to have a decision against me and any other people that come behind me with their claims given that Mirror Group have accepted hacking ... yes, I would feel some injustice."

Green suggested that Harry wanted "to have been phone hacked", to which the prince replied: "Nobody wants to be phone hacked."

ABSENCE OF CALL DATA

Green again asked Harry about the absence of call data suggesting MGN journalists listened to his voicemails, contrasting it with the amount of call data provided in his separate lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch's UK newspaper arm News Group Newspapers.

He asked Harry if he accepted that "the absence of call data to your phone is at least suggestive that you were not hacked by Mirror Group", to which Harry replied: "Absolutely not."

Harry also said that he thought "burner phones" were used to intercept voicemails and that call data had been "destroyed".

INCREDIBLY DISTURBING

Harry told the court that a story about him attending a nightclub after breaking up with his girlfriend, Chelsy Davy, was "incredibly disturbing".

He also said that the article with the headline "Hooray Harry Dumped", published in 2007, was "celebrating" the end of his relationship - which Green firmly denied.

"'Hooray Harry Dumped' was hurtful to say the least," Harry said. "That such a private moment was turned into a bit of a laugh and the fact that these payments (to private investigators) were referred to as 'Project Harry' is incredibly disturbing.

"The level of surveillance that I was under was quite something."

Green replied that the article quoted a friend of Harry's girlfriend as saying "she just got tired of his hooray lifestyle", adding: "It's not celebrating the demise of your relationship."

PUBLIC INTEREST STORIES

Harry was earlier asked about what type of story about him he would consider to be in the public interest, after he said on Tuesday that "there is a difference between public interest and what interests the public", in relation to an article about him allegedly taking drugs as a teenager.

Green asked him about the article again, to which Harry said the article was not in the public interest. "I don't believe it affected the wellbeing of society," he said.

Asked by Green what stories about Harry the prince would consider legitimate public interest, Harry initially declined to answer, saying he would be speculating, before replying when pressed: "A life-threatening injury. I'm sure there are others."