Prince Harry court case – latest: Coronation Street star claims hair ‘set on fire’ after ‘nasty girl’ narrative

Nikki Sanderson is the latest to take the witness box after Prince Harry’s bombshell testimony earlier this week

Prince Harry arrives at High Court for battle with MGN over phone hacking

Soap actress Nikki Sanderson said her hair was set on fire by a group of girls after Mirror articles painted her as a “stuck up, nasty, party girl”.

She said in her witness statement: “People would elbow me, push me and, on one occasion, a group of girls even set my hair on fire. This particular incident happened in the toilets of a club and the group of girls had been bothering me all night.

“I had gone to the toilets on my own and I was washing my hands and I smelt burning. I looked down and they had set fire to the back of my hair. Fortunately, I wasn’t wearing any hair product, otherwise, my hair would have gone up in flames.

She added: “It’s because of this narrative created and repeated by MGN that I was stuck up, nasty, rude, promiscuous, and a party girl. It feels like character assassination.”

Meanwhile, the Duke of Sussex has landed back in Los Angeles, after a flying visit to the UK to give evidence in his High Court phone hacking case against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN).

Key Points

• Sanderson says her hair was ‘set on fire’ by girls after ‘character assassination’ by Mirror articles
• Nikki Sanderson tells court phone hacking left her in ‘constant state of paranoia'
• Prince Harry returns to US after hacking trial testimony ‘without seeing William or Charles’
• At a glance: Key moments from Prince Harry and Mirror journalist’s testimony
• Piers Morgan could have ‘injected’ information from voicemails into stories, court told

[9 June 2023 13:00 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

MGN ‘victim blaming’ for not bringing legal claim earlier, Nikki Sanderson tells court

Nikki Sanderson also said she felt like MGN was trying to “victim-blame” her for not bringing her legal claim earlier, when she only became aware she was a target in around 2019.

“I think this is gaslighting. MGN is basically saying ‘We did something really bad but it’s your fault because you didn’t know about it’. It feels to me like abuse and is extremely upsetting.

“I am not to blame for what they did and why should they get away with it just because they hid it for so long? This only makes what they did back then worse to my mind.”

She later added: “I have used the word ‘abuse’ a number of times throughout this statement, and I do not use it lightly, but the fact is these people were in positions of power and I was a child and a young female, and I was attacked by people who were more powerful than me. I did nothing to deserve this treatment.”

Mirror Group Newspapers admits that on four occasions in 2004 and 2005 journalists used private investigators to obtain private information about Sanderson, Andrew Green KC told the court.“

MGN apologised to you unreservedly about that,” Green told Sanderson as he assured her: “It won’t happen again.”

(PA)

[9 June 2023 12:45 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

Corrie star says seeing her personal life in the papers was ‘heartbreaking,’ court hears

Nikki Sanderson has said seeing her personal life “splashed over the papers” was “heartbreaking”.

“I suspected someone who worked in the press office at Corrie was leaking stories about me and I stopped sharing information about my private life with them as a result. I feel awful about this now.”

Sanderson said one article, which described her father as a love-rat and a 4-time wed womaniser, was particularly hurtful.

“I was so young and I was really struggling with the fact my dad was not present in my life and this article made it a lot worse. To have my personal life splashed over the papers for people to indulge in was heartbreaking.

“This is not celebrity gossip; it is my life. What made it even more upsetting is that it dragged my mum and my brother into it as well which is really hurtful as they have not chosen to be in the industry, so they don’t want their ‘dirty laundry’ all over the papers. It’s embarrassing.”

Candice Stowe, played by Nikki Sanderson in Coronation Street, in the early noughties (ITV)

[9 June 2023 12:30 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

Nikki Sanderson tells court phone hacking left her in ‘constant state of paranoia'

Nikki Sanderson told a court how phone hacking and unlawful information gathering by journalists had a “huge impact” on her life and left her in a “constant state of paranoia”.

The actress, who played Candice Stowe in Coronation Street and currently stars in Hollyoaks, said she felt she had been the victim of “abuse” because of the illegal activities of journalists for Mirror Group Newspapers.

In her witness statement for the trial at the High Court, she described the press intrusion as frightening, creepy and disturbing and told how the stories about her left her angry, upset and distressed.

She said: “MGN’s illegal activities have had a huge impact on how I navigated my life both at the time and to this day. I have spent the last 20 years of my life being hyper-aware of certain things.

“It’s ridiculous but that is the impact of what happened all those years ago.

“I can remember that I used to feel in a constant state of paranoia, and I was hyper- aware of the people that were around me. It was horrible because it made me feel like I couldn’t trust anyone as I would presume that they were selling stories to the press.”

(PA)

[9 June 2023 12:10 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

Prince Harry suffered ‘huge amount of paranoia’ from press intrusion, court told

The Duke of Sussex lost friendships “entirely unnecessarily” due to the “paranoia” caused by alleged unlawful information gathering, the High Court has been told as part of his case against the Daily Mirror’s publisher.

On Tuesday, Prince Harry appeared in a witness box in the Rolls Building to face cross-examination by a barrister for Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) as part of his claim over alleged unlawful activities, including phone hacking.

The 38-year-old royal told the court that MGN’s alleged intrusion into his life contributed to “a huge amount of paranoia” in his relationships.

[9 June 2023 11:50 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

Piers Morgan wishes Prince Harry ‘luck with privacy campaign’ as he reacts to court criticism

Piers Morgan hit back at Prince Harry after receiving criticism from the royal during his phone hacking trial.

Appearing in court on Tuesday 6 June, the Duke of Sussex said he felt physically sick at “the thought of Piers Morgan and his band of journalists earwigging into my mother’s private and sensitive messages”.

Harry is suing Mirror Group Newspapers over alleged unlawful information gathering.

Speaking to Sky News later in the day, Mr Morgan insisted he hadn’t seen the comments, but went on to hit back, saying: “I wish him luck with his privacy campaign and look forward to reading about it in his next book.”

[9 June 2023 11:35 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

Prince Harry admits evidence in hacking trial contradicts claim made in Spare

Prince Harry has admitted evidence he has given in the ongoing phone-hacking trial at the High Court contradicts a claim he made in his memoir Spare.

The Duke of Sussex was challenged over discrepancies between his autobiography Spare and his hacking trial witness statement over whether he wanted to meet ex-royal butler Paul Burrell, a former confidant of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Harry said in his witness statement that he was “firmly against” a meeting - but Andrew Green KC, for MGN, highlighted that Harry wrote in Spare that he wanted to fly back to confront Mr Burrell, who released a tell-all book about Harry’s late mother in 2003 after being cleared of stealing from her estate.

[9 June 2023 11:08 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

Nikki Sanderson at High Court today

The ongoing phone hacking trial has now begun at the High Court today, with Coronation Street star Nikki Sanderson in the witness box today.

Stay with us as we feed you the latest from the court.

(PA)

[9 June 2023 10:42 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

Prince Harry claims press intrusion led to Chelsy Davy breakup

In case you missed it...

Throughout his High Court trial, Prince Harry has made several bombshell claims about the publisher of the Daily Mirror, such as using unlawful information-gathering to leak details about his personal life.

In fact, much of Harry’s case against MGN has focused on his past relationship with ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy, a Zimbabwean businesswoman whom he dated from 2004 to 2011.

During his testimony on Tuesday (6 June), Harry blamed the “prying eyes of the tabloids” for ultimately leading to their breakup. “Our relationship was long distance for the majority of the time we were together, with Chelsy and I often living in different countries, so we relied on communicating by phone a lot,” he said in his 55-page witness statement obtained by The Independent.

“We, naturally, spoke about all types of personal matters, including all aspects of our relationship and this was often through voicemail,” he said. “As my girlfriend, I trusted Chelsy with the most private of information and visa versa.”

[9 June 2023 10:10 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

More like a boy than a man – Prince Harry looked crumpled in the witness box

Harry has never been very fond of exams, bless him, and this was certainly a cross one: the masterly Andrew Green KC peering down sternly, taking off his glasses to jab home his points, popping them back on again to peer incredulously at the prince whenever he said something silly, writes Samuel Fishwick

[9 June 2023 09:50 · Maryam Zakir-Hussain]

Government and press both ‘at rock bottom’, says Prince Harry

Prince Harry has claimed that the UK government is at “rock bottom” in an extraordinary intervention into politics during his High Court case against a tabloid newspaper group.

The Duke of Sussex used a remarkable 55-page witness statement in his case against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) over alleged phone hacking to lash out at the standards of British government and democracy.

Accusing the government of being too “scared” of the press, he said: “Our country is judged globally by the state of our press and our government – both of which I believe are at rock bottom.”

Harry said: “Democracy fails when your press fails to scrutinise and hold the government accountable, and instead choose to get into bed with them so they can ensure the status quo.”