A key witness claims he received a death threat linked to Prince Harry’s privacy case and now seeks to testify from a secret location. Photo / Getty Images
A private investigator has alleged that a member of Prince Harry’s legal research team made a death threat against him.
Gavin Burrows, a key witness in the privacy claim brought against the publisher of the Daily Mail, said he was so fearful for his safety that he has asked to give evidence to the UK High Court remotely from a secret overseas location.
He will refuse to do so if his hideout is shared with lawyers from either side, the judge was told.
Burrows’ disputed “confession” to unlawful information-gathering for journalists between 1993 and 2011 is at the heart of the case.
He has alleged that a pivotal witness statement in which he appeared to admit targeting “a large number of private individuals” – including Prince Harry – by hacking phones and bugging cars, was “prepared by others without my knowledge”.
He described the document as “completely false” and said his signature was a “forgery”.
Five of the seven claimants, including the Duke of Sussex, Sir Elton John and Baroness Lawrence, have told the High Court they embarked on the high-profile legal action against Associated Newspapers Ltd based on evidence that Burrows apparently obtained.
The court heard that the alleged death threat was made against him via voicemail on behalf of Graham Johnson, a former tabloid journalist and convicted phone hacker who has been working as a key legal researcher and investigator for claimants.
Burrows said he was prepared to share a recording of the relevant message as evidence.
However, Dan Waddell, a fellow member of Johnson’s team, said that he “recognises that the voice on the recording is that of Gavin Burrows himself”.
In a bad-tempered exchange with Mr Justice Nicklin, David Sherborne, for the claimants, alleged that Burrows was effectively holding the court “to ransom” by putting conditions on his participation.
He said his purported safety fears were “utterly spurious” and that the approach was “highly unorthodox”.
The barrister argued that Burrows should be blocked from giving evidence if he did not disclose his location.
He said the claimants had been put in an “invidious” position but had a right to know where the witness was in order to ensure justice was served and that he was taking part free from interference or coaching.
Antony White KC, for Associated Newspapers Ltd, said that in lockdown he had been involved in cases that had taken evidence from abroad and “even a bedsit on the south coast”.
The judge appeared incredulous that Sherborne might seek to prevent such a key witness from giving evidence.
He said there was “no dispute” that Burrows’ evidence was extremely important to the claimants’ case and should be tested in open court.
He eventually agreed to ask the Foreign Office whether there was any legal reason why he could not give evidence from abroad.
The court has previously heard that Burrows was accused of assaulting Johnson and of making two threatening calls to him in a dispute about payments.
He is alleged to have visited the former journalist’s home while drunk, verbally threatening him and pushing him in the street while Johnson’s partner and children were inside their home, prompting him to call the police.
Meanwhile, Burrows has told the court that Johnson’s Byline Investigates website contacted him on the eve of the trial in what he described as a “blatant attempt to intimidate him”.
Earlier, Daniel Portley-Hanks, a US-based private investigator, admitted that he “did unlawful stuff” on behalf of Mail journalists in relation to Prince Harry but could not “recall what exactly”.
The 79-year-old said he had worked regularly for the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday for more than 20 years and that as a result, had lived in a five-bedroomed house and made a substantial sum of money.
He alleged that after the Leveson Inquiry, the work dried up and he was forced to declare bankruptcy.
Portley-Hanks described himself as “the database guy”, who could access contacts and other private details but told the court that until recently, he had always believed his work was lawful.
He said a Mail journalist had once been asked him wire money to a former police officer in Florida, who would pass it on to a serving officer for access to confidential files concerning Jeffrey Epstein.
White said the documents were sourced from “exhibits placed on the public record” in civil proceedings involving Epstein.
He said Hanks’ evidence was “lacking in any of the specificity which should be expected to support such serious allegations”.
Portley-Hanks also described for the first time how Virginia Giuffre, a victim of Epstein, was tracked down to Australia where she was running a cupcake shop.
She was interviewed and shared the now-infamous photograph of herself posing with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, triggering the start of his downfall.
The trial continues.
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