Prince Harry has been accused in a hearing of "deliberately destroying" evidence in his High Court case against the publishers of The Sun newspaper, News Group Newspapers.
The publishers are seeking the release of texts, WhatsApp messages and emails that the Duke of Sussex exchanged with the King's private secretary, Sir Clive Alderton, keeper of the Privy Seal, Sir Michael Stevens, and the ghostwriter of his memoir, JR Moehringer. However, David Sherborne, who represents the Duke, said the requests were just a "fishing expedition".
Harry has been accused of destroying these pieces of evidence, with his representatives telling a hearing that the royal and JR communicated over Signal for the book and their chat history was wiped prior to the book's publication in January 2023.
Hotmail addresses that had been used by Harry in 2014 are also no longer accessible. Two email accounts have been searched for the 55 key terms requested by NGN.
Anthony Hudson KC, who represents NGN, claimed the Duke and his legal team were "trying to create an obstacle course".
In a pre-trial hearing he said: "There ought to be proper evidence about this. Those messages are clearly within his control, even if they have been deleted. That's why we say the search for texts and WhatsApps is important.
"It is, I'm afraid we say, another example of the obfuscation in relation to the claimant's case. We say it's shocking and extraordinary that the claimant has deliberately destroyed…"
He was then interrupted by the judge, Mr Justice Fancourt who said it wasn't "clear" what happened with the messages.
Countering Mr Hudson, Mr Sherborne said claims the Duke "dragged his feet, had to be dragged kicking and screaming, had set up some kind of obstacle course" was incorrect. He added that only "a handful" of the 35,000 emails searched were "relevant".
The trial came about after Harry and 40 other individuals sued NGN over alleged unlawful information-gathering and invasion of privacy. A trial date for the case has been set for January.
The case has been raging for several months and the Duke has experienced highs and lows in his legal journey.
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Last month, Mr Justice Fancourt dismissed new claims against the group's former owner, Rupert Murdoch, saying they added "nothing material", but said some other amendments could be made.