A private investigator central to Prince Harry’s legal battle against the Daily Mail was described in the High Court as a “fantasist” with an unhealthy fixation on Hugh Grant.
Dr Evan Harris, a former Hacked Off director now serving as a researcher for the claimants, made the accusation against Christine Hart during Thursday’s proceedings.
“She was obsessed with Hugh Grant and a fantasist about it,” Dr Harris informed the judge.
Hart features prominently in claims brought by seven high-profile individuals, among them the Duke of Sussex and Baroness Lawrence, against Associated Newspapers Limited.
A private investigator central to Prince Harry’s legal battle against the Daily Mail was described in the High Court as a “fantasist” with an unhealthy fixation on Hugh Grant.
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The claimants contend that approximately 50 articles were obtained through phone hacking, blagging and other illegal methods.
Baroness Lawrence, mother of the murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, gave evidence that Hart had confessed to obtaining her personal details unlawfully for the newspaper.
“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,” Lady Lawrence stated in her witness statement.
She told the court she had learned that Hart’s speciality was “targeting victims of crime like me” to extract sensitive and confidential details through deception.
Hugh Grant is not one of the seven high-profile individuals purusing the court case against Associated Newspapers Limited.
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Associated Newspapers has rejected all allegations, maintaining that Hart was “induced” through promises of regular payments and a book deal to make her claims.
The court heard that Graham Johnson, a convicted phone hacker with connections to Grant’s Hacked Off campaign, first contacted Hart in February 2016 and paid £4,000 for her notes.
Hart has claimed that Dr Harris subsequently offered her £16,000, provided her with a “lake house” to rent, and treated her to meals and drinks.
Dr Harris firmly rejected these assertions, telling the court that Hart was “extremely difficult” and “hardly a trusted source”.
He dismissed her accounts regarding Grant as entirely fabricated.
Baroness Lawrence, mother of the murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, gave evidence that Hart had confessed to obtaining her personal details unlawfully for the newspaper.
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“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,” Dr Harris said.
The court was presented with an email Hart sent to a Daily Mail executive in 2016, disclosing that Johnson had approached her and claimed Grant was “out to destroy” the newspaper.
Hart sought guidance in the message, stating she felt “overwhelmed” by the situation.
Associated lawyer Julian Darrall subsequently wrote to managing editor Charles Garside following a conversation with Hart.
When Antony White KC, representing Associated, put it to Dr Harris that Johnson was paying Hart “for evidence that might build a civil claim against Associated”, Dr Harris responded: “He was paying her for her time.”
