Prince Harry and Doreen Lawrence appeal Daily Mail hacking verdict, Elton John and Liz Hurley join Court of Appeal bid after £9.5 million interim costs order, publisher denied all claims and has paid nothing so far

Images

Barristers for the group had alleged at trial that private investigators, freelance journalists and staff at ANL carried out acts including voicemail interception, landline tapping and obtaining information by deception (Getty/PA) Getty/PA

standard.co.uk

Prince Harry, Baroness Doreen Lawrence and Sir Elton John have filed applications at the Court of Appeal seeking permission to challenge the judgments that dismissed their claims against Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers. The bid, confirmed by court staff on Friday, targets both Mr Justice Nicklin's July 7 dismissal of all claims and his August costs order requiring the group to pay £9,544,355 within seven days as an initial contribution to the publisher's legal fees.

The claimants — also including David Furnish, Liz Hurley and Sadie Frost — alleged during an 11-week trial in London that private investigators, freelance journalists and ANL staff carried out voicemail interception, landline tapping and "blagging", obtaining information by deception. The publisher strongly denied the claims, its lawyers arguing that Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday journalists had offered a "compelling account of a pattern of legitimate sourcing" — friends, leaky social circles, press officers, previous reporting and other newspapers.

A spokesperson for the group said the claimants "respectfully disagree with those unprecedented decisions, which they consider to be legally and factually flawed." Beyond the dismissal itself, the appeal contests the indemnity-basis costs ruling, which allows ANL to recover more of its spending than a standard order would permit — a mechanism that compounds the financial risk of suing a publisher with deep pockets.

The case's practical effect is already visible. Losing claimants must now fund nearly £10 million in interim costs before the full sum is determined, and the bar for future phone-hacking-style claims against British newspapers has been raised. Lawrence, whose son Stephen was murdered in a 1993 racist attack and who has spent three decades pressing institutions over failures surrounding the case, now finds the litigation route to accountability with the press closed off as well — at least at first instance.

The Court of Appeal must now decide whether the dismissal and the indemnity order survive scrutiny. The publisher, which denied everything throughout, has so far paid nothing; the people who accused it of interception have paid £9.5 million and counting.