Piers Morgan ‘injected’ snippets of information into royal stories, Harry’s hacking trial hears 

Piers Morgan used to ‘inject’ snippets of information into royal stories, Prince Harry’s hacking trial heard today.

The former Daily Mirror editor, 58, has consistently denied claims he presided over a phone hacking empire.

The High Court has been told Mr Morgan was captivated by showbusiness stories and heard claims that he knew many came from listening to famous people’s voicemail messages.

On Thursday the paper’s royal correspondent in the 1990s and 2000s, Jane Kerr, said the editor had taken a ‘really genuine interest’ in the coverage, and would occasionally add snippets of information into stories she had authored.

In her written witness statement, she said Mr Morgan ‘engaged with the Palace press offices and would occasionally direct or inject information into a story’.

David Sherborne was cross-examining royal correspondent Jane Kerr, whose byline appears on several of the 33 articles cited by the Duke of Sussex as examples of unlawful intrusion by publisher Mirror Group Newspapers (Pictured: Jane Kerr arrives at the High Court in London, Thursday, June 8, 2023)

Prince Harry’s barrister David Sherborne suggested Mr Morgan had gleaned the extra information from hacked voicemail messages.

His paper was said to have been hacking Princess Diana’s messages from Harry when he was a schoolboy and, earlier in the case, former No.10 spin doctor Alistair Campbell accused ‘two-faced’ Mr Morgan of hacking into his bank account.

Speaking to the BBC ahead of the trial, Mr Morgan insisted: ‘I’ve never hacked a phone. I’ve never told anybody to hack a phone.’

He has poured scorn on Prince Harry’s decision to go to court, telling reporters: ‘I wish him luck with his privacy campaign and look forward to reading about it in his next book.’

The Duke of Sussex has used the trial to accuse Mr Morgan of ‘a barrage of horrific personal attacks and intimidation’ against himself and his wife Meghan in response to him suing the Mirror’s publisher.

Harry vowed to ‘hold him properly accountable for his unlawful activity towards both me and my mother during his editorship’.

Mr Morgan, who was editor of the Daily Mirror from 1995 to 2004, has always denied phone hacking, saying he will not take lectures on privacy invasion from ‘somebody who has spent the last three years ruthlessly and cynically invading the Royal Family’s privacy for vast commercial gain’.

After Prince Harry’s historic day and a half in the witness box, today the case moved on to other claimants who are also suing Mirror Group Newspapers.

Harry, who flew from his home in California to testify earlier in the week, was not at the High Court on Thursday (Pictured: Prince leaving the court on Wednesday)  

David Sherborne, Prince Harry’s lead lawyer, arrives at the High Court in London, Thursday, June 8, 2023

The Hollyoaks and former Coronation Street actress Nikki Sanderson was in court as Mr Sherborne outlined how her personal life had been ‘splashed over the papers’, telling Mr Justice Fancourt she had said: ‘This isn’t celebrity gossip – it’s my life.’

The 39-year-old actress, who played Candice in Coronation Street between 1995 and 2005, and has played Maxine Minniver in Hollyoaks since 2012, was particularly hurt by an article about her father ‘headlined ‘Corrie Candice’s Dad is secret love rat’, said to have been obtained by unlawful means.

The publisher of the Mirror denies all the claims against it.

The case continues.