adminLONDON. — Prince Harry found a tracking device on a car belonging to his then-girlfriend Chelsy Davy, a Zimbabwe-born beauty, he told a phone-hacking trial yesterday.
The Duke of Sussex said he was surprised how often journalists and photographers were able to follow him and Ms Davy during their relationship.
Speaking during his phone hacking trial against the publisher of the Mirror newspaper, Harry claimed that the attention from the Press was a key factor in their break-up.
The two were in an on-and-off relationship from 2004-2010.
The Mirror Group Newspapers barrister David Sherborne asked the Prince yesterday how he knew about the tracking device on the vehicle, to which Harry replied: “We found it.”
Harry claimed the tracking device was put on the car by Mike Behr, a private investigator.
The Duke of Sussex has previously accused Mr Behr of following him.
Harry claimed that his friend Mark Dyer also found a tracker on his car.
The prince Previously made the claim about finding the device in his memoir Spare, published earlier this year.
It comes on the third day of the trial and the second day on which Harry has given evidence.
The Duke, 38, is suing MGN for damages, claiming journalists at the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People were linked to methods including phone hacking, so-called “blagging” or gaining information by deception, and use of private investigators for unlawful activities.
He alleges that about 140 articles published between 1996 and 2010 by MGN titles contained information gathered using unlawful methods, and 33 have been selected to be considered at the trial.
MGN is contesting his claim and has either denied or not admitted that articles about Harry being examined at the trial involved phone hacking or unlawful activity.
Earlier yesterday, Harry claimed an article about a visit to a strip club that was reported to have left Ms Davy raging was obtained through phone hacking.
An April 2006 article in the Sunday People said Harry went to Spearmint Rhino near Slough, Berkshire, with friends.
The report said Ms Davy was furious about his “boozy evening at a lap dancing club” and berated him over the phone.
The Duke of Sussex said the risk of hacking a royal’s phone was “worth the reward” for journalists on his second day of being cross examined in the phone hacking trial at the High Court. – lbc
Bongani Ndlovu
Mathew Masinge