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

[7 June 2023 15:56 · Andy Gregory]

Mirror journalist grilled over ‘magical’ provision of phone numbers

The Mirror’s former royal editor and assistant news editor Jane Kerr is currently being questioned by Prince Harry’s lawyer David Sherborne.

In her witness statement, Ms Kerr has described calling various agencies who provided phone numbers the paper needed to cover breaking news.

Ms Kerr said she “knew what she was doing but it was a long time ago”, after Mr Sherborne claimed she seemed “to have no idea of what you were doing at the time”.

Pressing further, the barrister asked: “You called up people, you had no idea what they did – they magically produced phone numbers and you never asked any questions?”, to which Ms Kerr replied: “Yes.”

In her witness statement, Ms Kerr said: “I would like to reiterate in the strongest terms that I have never engaged in voicemail interception at MGN or elsewhere and I have never instructed private investigators or other third parties to engage in unlawful information gathering activities.

“I worked hard and honestly as a journalist, always believing I was doing the right thing, and I felt proud and privileged to be the Mirror’s royal reporter. To be accused of such a thing is extremely upsetting.”

[7 June 2023 15:46 · Andy Gregory]

Judge asks Harry about his disappearing voicemails

Prior to the conclusion of his testimony, Prince Harry was asked by the judge when he first began to notice that his voicemails did not appear to be “new” when he listened to them – suggesting that someone else had already listened to them.

In his witness statement, Harry says he was first issued a mobile “by the institution” while at Eton, over which period he would hear voicemails that were no longer “new” – which at the time blamed on either a technical glitch or “having had too many drinks the night before”.

As he departed the witness box, the judge, Mr Justice Fancourt, zoned in on this aspect of his testimony, asking when the duke experienced “this strange activity”.

“From the moment I had a mobile phone,” replied Prince Harry, to which the judge asked: “Are you saying this continued throughout the period?”

“It never stopped,” the duke replied.

[7 June 2023 15:27 · Andy Gregory]

‘I just made the calls: Mirror journalist defends commissioning firm to find information ‘900 times'

Prince Harry’s lawyer claims to have evidence that former Mirror journalist Jane Kerr commissioned a third-party company 900 times to obtain details about people, such as their dates of birth and addresses.

Barrister David Sherborne told the court that internal emails showed “concern” at the paper about the sums being spent on such firms given that a database there allowing its staff to do similar searches for free.

After Ms Kerr said she “just made the calls”, Mr Sherborne said: “You were the assistant news editor at the Daily Mirror. You’re telling the court you instructed a company 900 times to do something you could have done for free and you’ve no idea how they obtained this information?”

“It just didn’t occur to me to ask,” she replied, prompting Mr Sherborne to suggest that she “knew” journalists were using dates of birth to pass to private investigators to access people’s voicemails – which she denied.

In her witness statement, Ms Kerr said: “I have never engaged in voicemail interception at MGN or elsewhere and I have never engaged the services of private investigators or other third parties to engage in unlawful information gathering activities.”

[7 June 2023 15:16 · Andy Gregory]

Mirror journalist questioned over role not mentioned in witness statement

In questioning by Prince Harry’s lawyer, former Mirror royal editor Jane Kerr has been asked why she did not mention her former role as the paper’s assistant news editor in her witness statement.

Pressed on the matter by barrister David Sherborne, who claimed she was trying to distance herself from the paper, Ms Kerr said that while she could have included it in her witness statement, she was focusing on the work she did as royal editor and royal reporter.

[7 June 2023 15:10 · Adam Forrest]

I launched hacking claim to protect Meghan, says Harry

Earlier today, Prince Harry said he had launched his phone hacking case to stop his wife Meghan from suffering “intrusion and hate” from the press, the High Court has heard.

Andrew Green KC, acting on behalf of Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), asked when the Duke of Sussex initially discussed possible legal action.

Harry said he believed there was a discussion about him wanting to put a stop to the “absolute intrusion and hate that was coming towards me and my wife and see if there was any way to find a different course of action, rather than relying on the institution’s way”.

Mr Green asked if he had wanted to bring an action against News Group Newspapers (NGN) first and then decided to also sue MGN, to which Harry replied: “No, I believe I filed the claims at pretty much the same time.” Harry added that there was “industrial-scale destruction of evidence on all sides”.