Prince Harry has been asked by a High Court judge to explain how messages between him and Spare, the ghostwriter of his memoir, were “destroyed”.
There are indications that these may be related to his lawsuit against News Group Newsletters (NGN), publishers of The Sun.
Judge Fancourt said it was “not entirely clear” that the duke’s correspondence with John Mehringer on messaging platform Signal, or the apparent deletion of Spare’s drafts before publication, was “completely unclear”.
He also said there was evidence that “a large amount of potentially relevant documents” and “confidential messages” between Harry and the ghostwriter “were destroyed at some point between 2021 and 2023, long after this litigation had already begun”.
He ordered the duke’s lawyers to further search the laptop and examine text, WhatsApp and Signal messages dating from 2005 to January last year.
Harry was also ordered to pay NGN an interim payment of £60,000 towards its legal costs after the judge ruled in broad favour of the publishers’ request for a wider range of evidence.
The prince had previously been accused of setting up an “obstacle course” in his legal battle against NGN.
Lawyers for the publishers also argued that the Duke of Sussex was forced to release more than 11,000 emails from now-closed accounts “amid strong protests”.
Anthony Hudson KC, representing NGN, said: “All documents relating to the writing of Spare appear to have been destroyed both before publication and after the proceedings began.”
Legally, the purpose of disclosure is to ensure that all parties are aware of all documents relevant to a case, the government website says.
NGN is demanding disclosure of any information that may be relevant to when Harry knew he might bring legal action against the publisher.
NGN also wants the court to know whether the prince’s filing of the lawsuit in September 2019 occurred within the statutory time limit.
The publishers have asked Judge Fancourt to order Harry’s current and former lawyers to investigate various communications.
The duke’s legal team has accused the publishers of embarking on a “classic fishing expedition” that was “totally unnecessary and disproportionate”.
Harry, 39, claims he was targeted by journalists and private investigators working for NGN, which also published the News of the World, which closed in 2011.
He is one of several people suing the publisher. Some of those cases are due to have due process hearings in January.
NGN has previously denied any wrongdoing at The Sun.
Judge Fancourt heard 11,570 emails from the duke’s now-closed email account (ha@sjpkp.com) were being reviewed by lawyers for possible disclosure.
Hudson said he had “had to extract information from the plaintiffs in the midst of a furious outcry”, adding that the discovery process would have been “incredibly easy” without the obstacle course the plaintiffs had created.
Hudson added: “He doesn’t want to do anything like this for some reason.”
In written argument, he said Harry’s conversations with Spare’s ghostwriter, John Mehringer, on messaging service Signal were “deleted” before the memoir’s publication, adding: “Therefore it appears that a significant source of relevant documents is on the ‘record’. Plaintiffs’ possessions have been deleted during these proceedings.”
Hudson continued: “All documents relating to Spare’s letters appear to have been destroyed both before their publication and after the commencement of litigation, a fact which raises significant concerns as to whether Plaintiffs have complied with their obligations to preserve potentially relevant documents.”
David Sherborne, counsel for Harry, opposed the publishers’ request for discovery, adding that a “totally false” impression had been created.
He also claimed NGN had previously deleted “millions of emails” to “hide incriminating evidence”.
“It is the height of hypocrisy to claim that obstacles have been placed in front of plaintiffs when they clearly had something to hide,” Sherborne added.
Prince Harry voluntarily allowed his emails to be searched, but the search took 150 hours and cost £50,000, the duke’s lawyers said.
In his written argument, Sherborne said Prince Harry had already searched his California home for documents and no longer had his laptop, mobile phone or data back-ups dating from before September 2013. He added that there were “no relevant social media accounts to search” but that they had been deactivated.
Royal staff had also been contacted and “confirmed they do not have any relevant documents”, Sherborne said.