Duke loses claim against publisher

THE Duke of Sussex, Sir Elton John and Baroness Doreen Lawrence have lost their High Court claims against the publisher of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday over allegations of unlawful information gathering.

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A group of household names, which also included David Furnish, Liz Hurley and Sadie Frost, alleged acts including voicemail interception, land line tapping and obtaining information by deception - also known as “blagging” - were carried out by private investigators, freelance journalists and staff at Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL).

ANL strongly denied the claims as it defended the cases, which it also said had been brought too late. In a decision yesterday, Mr Justice Nicklin dismissed all of the claims, ruling that none of the group of seven had proven the allegations of unlawful information gathering. The judge said in the 436-page ruling: “For the reasons given in this judgment, each of the claimants’ claims is dismissed.”