Prince Harry continued the crusade against the British tabloid press on Wednesday at the High Court in London, which he has declared his life's mission. The king's youngest son and other plaintiffs, including singer George Michael's executor, former national soccer player Ian Wright and pop singer Cheryl Cole, who were selected by the court as representative of a larger group in the class-action lawsuit, accuse Mirror Group Newspapers of illegally gathering information.

Gina Thomas

Features correspondent based in London.

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Prince Harry has cited 148 articles published in the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People between 1996 and 2010 that he claims contained illegally obtained information. The court will limit itself to 33 of them in the proceedings, which are scheduled to last six to seven weeks. The lawsuit is one of four ongoing lawsuits brought by the prince against British newspaper companies.

A historical exception

The prince himself is expected to testify in court in the first personal interrogation of a high-ranking member of the royal family since the trial of the so-called Baccarat scandal of 1890. At that time, the heir to the throne, later Edward VII, was summoned as a witness in the trial of a nobleman accused of gambling fraud who tried to defend himself against character assassination. Prince Harry's appearance is expected in June.

TV presenter Piers Morgan, who is one of the fiercest critics of the prince and his wife Meghan Markle, could also be summoned. Morgan was editor-in-chief of the Daily Mirror from 1994 to 2004, but denies any knowledge of wiretapping. Star lawyer David Sherborne, who represents the prince and other plaintiffs, argues it's unthinkable that Morgan and senior editors wouldn't have known. He accused Morgan of authorizing the "systematic" use of private investigators, pointing to the communication between management and other parties, which showed that employees like Morgan must have been aware of something. So-called "plaggers" were also mentioned, who obtained personal information from celebrities through cheating. Sherborne accused the Mirror Group of taking rewarding risks for the newspaper. Morality did not play a role. He spoke of a "flood of illegality".

Mirror group admits mistakes

Like Rupert Murdoch's News Group Newspapers, which Prince Harry is also taking action against, the Mirror Group says some of the charges are time-barred. She denies the interception of mailboxes, but admitted that there were indications of the use of third parties in other types of illegal information gathering that deserved compensation. The Mirror Group apologizes unreservedly for any such incident and assures that it will never happen again.

In his written testimony, Prince Harry laid out on six pages how the constant pressure would have caused paranoia, depression and distrust of friends and family members. His girlfriend at the time, Chelsy Davy, had decided that royal life was not for her because of the illegal gathering of information by journalists from the Mirror group.

The Mirror Group has already had to pay hundreds of millions of pounds in compensation in connection with allegations of illegal information gathering triggered by the Murdoch wiretapping scandal "News of the World". Another fifty million have been set aside for other claims for damages.