Child's birthday party keeps the prince away from court

Nothing is going to stop Prince Harry from having his day in court. Apart from, it turns out, Harry himself.

- TOM PECK

It’s fair to say that what none of us quite saw coming was that he simply wouldn’t turn up because he had to be at his two-year-old daughter’s birthday party.

His barrister, David Sherborne, in his rather theatrical way, said only that his client’s “travel and security arrangements are such that it is a littly bit tricky”.

A little bit tricky, that is, for Prince Harry to actually turn up on a date that has been scheduled and written in very large letters on the planning schedules of every news organisation in the world for quite some time. But they, and indeed we, perhaps did not consider the fact that Princess Lilibet of Sussex turned two the day before, and that it is quite a long way from Los Angeles to London.

The judge, Mr Justice Fancourt, described himself as being “faintly surprised” that the duke had not ordained to take to the witness stand and begin giving evidence in his own hearing. Mirror Group Newspapers, who the prince is suing for damages, described it as “absolutely extraordinary”. They were absolutely right.