Prince Harry hacking case: Key witness called 'fantasist' over Hugh Grant claims. Photo / AFP
Prince Harry hacking case: Key witness called 'fantasist' over Hugh Grant claims. Photo / AFP
A private investigator at the heart of Prince Harry’s case against the Daily Mail has been branded a “fantasist” who was “obsessed with Hugh Grant”.
Christine Hart is named by seven high-profile figures, including the Duke of Sussex and Baroness Lawrence, in legal claims brought against Associated Newspapers Limited, publisherof the Daily Mail. The group allege that some 50 stories were sourced by phone hacking, blagging and other unlawful means.
Lawrence, the mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, told the High Court that she had been told Hart specialised in “targeting victims of crime like me” to extract confidential and sensitive information by blagging.
“The private investigator … has admitted that she stole my information for the Mail and that she blagged me, the mother of ‘that black boy’, for information,” she said in her witness statement.
Associated denies the claims and has said Hart was “induced” with the promise of monthly payments and a book deal.
The High Court heard that Hart was approached in February 2016 by Graham Johnson, a convicted phone hacker linked to Mr Grant’s Hacked Off campaign group.
The Duke of Sussex waves as he arrives outside the The Royal Courts of Justice, Britain's High Court, in London. Photo / AFP
He paid her £4000 ($9100) for her notes. Hart has alleged that she was offered a further £16,000 ($36,400) by Dr Evan Harris, a former director of Hacked Off, who is now working alongside Mr Johnson as a researcher on behalf of Prince Harry and his fellow claimants.
She claimed Dr Harris rented her a “lake house” and took her out for dinner and drinks.
Dr Harris told the court that Hart was “extremely difficult” and “hardly a trusted source”.
He said anything Hart said about Grant was “made up” and that she was a “fantasist”.
“She was obsessed with Hugh Grant and a fantasist about it,” he told the judge.
“She wrote a self-published book saying that he’d bought her a house on the river’s edge and that I had fallen in love with her and that I had given her the rent … it was just unbelievable.”
The court was shown an email sent by Hart to a Daily Mail executive in 2016 in which she revealed she had been approached by Johnson.
She said he had told her Grant was “out to destroy” the Mail, that her work for the newspaper had been illegal – or otherwise immoral – and that she must hand over her bank statements to prove she had been paid by the company.
Hart asked in the email for advice, explaining that she felt “overwhelmed”.
A few days later, having spoken to Hart, Associated lawyer Julian Darrall wrote to managing editor Charles Garside.
“She thinks Graham Johnson is working for Hugh Grant and his barrister ... for Bylines,” he wrote, in reference to the Byline Investigates website.
“She thinks they are trying to start a civil suit against the Daily Mail, The Sun and the Sunday Mirror.
Associated Newspapers denies the claims, suggesting Hart was "induced" with promises of payments and a book deal. Photo / Getty Images
“She has been kept in the dark, lied to and doesn’t know what is behind it.”
Antony White KC, for Associated, suggested to Harris that Johnson was paying Hart “for evidence that might build a civil claim against Associated”.
Harris replied: “He was paying her for her time.”
The court last week heard a recording of Hart in which she admitted blagging Lady Lawrence by pretending she was a journalist from The Guardian.
However, she has also made a number of statements in which she states that she did not carry out illegal activity for the Mail newspapers, Associated said in written submissions.
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