Start of trial of Duke of Sussex’s legal claim against Sun publisher delayed
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The start of the trial of the Duke of Sussex’s legal claim against the publisher of The Sun has been pushed back by an hour at the High Court. Harry, as well as former Labour deputy leader Lord Tom Watson, are suing News Group Newspapers (NGN) over allegations of unlawful information gathering.
NGN, which also ran the now-defunct News Of The World, denies any unlawful activity took place at The Sun. The trial was due to start at 10.30am on Tuesday but David Sherborne, for the duke and Lord Watson, asked the judge for the start of the hearing to be delayed.
He said: “I have been asked to ask Your Lordship if we can have a short adjournment for an hour.”. He continued: “I appreciate that might cause some inconvenience.”. Mr Justice Fancourt agreed to the adjournment but said: “It does not cause inconvenience, it causes the loss of some time if this trial is going to proceed.”.
The trial, which is scheduled to last 10 weeks, is now expected to begin at 11.30am at the Rolls Building in London. The trial, during which Harry is expected to give evidence over several days, has twice been adjourned since the duke began the legal action in 2019.
The judge has previously described the court battle as resembling a campaign between “two obdurate but well-resourced armies” that is taking up “more than an appropriate” amount of court time. Several other high-profile figures have settled their cases against NGN, with 39 people settling claims between July and December last year.
