Prince Harry claims he found tracker on Chelsy Davy’s car in bombshell testimony

Prince Harry’s lawyer claims to have evidence that former Mirror journalist Jane Kerr commissioned a third-party company 900 times to obtain details about people, such as their dates of birth and addresses.

Barrister David Sherborne told the court that internal emails showed “concern” at the paper about the sums being spent on such firms given that a database there allowing its staff to do similar searches for free.

After Ms Kerr said she “just made the calls”, Mr Sherborne said: “You were the assistant news editor at the Daily Mirror. You’re telling the court you instructed a company 900 times to do something you could have done for free and you’ve no idea how they obtained this information?”

“It just didn’t occur to me to ask,” she replied, prompting Mr Sherborne to suggest that she “knew” journalists were using dates of birth to pass to private investigators to access people’s voicemails – which she denied.

In her witness statement, Ms Kerr said: “I have never engaged in voicemail interception at MGN or elsewhere and I have never engaged the services of private investigators or other third parties to engage in unlawful information gathering activities.”

In questioning by Prince Harry’s lawyer, former Mirror royal editor Jane Kerr has been asked why she did not mention her former role as the paper’s assistant news editor in her witness statement.

Pressed on the matter by barrister David Sherborne, who claimed she was trying to distance herself from the paper, Ms Kerr said that while she could have included it in her witness statement, she was focusing on the work she did as royal editor and royal reporter.

Earlier today, Prince Harry said he had launched his phone hacking case to stop his wife Meghan from suffering “intrusion and hate” from the press, the High Court has heard.

Andrew Green KC, acting on behalf of Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), asked when the Duke of Sussex initially discussed possible legal action.

Harry said he believed there was a discussion about him wanting to put a stop to the “absolute intrusion and hate that was coming towards me and my wife and see if there was any way to find a different course of action, rather than relying on the institution’s way”.

Mr Green asked if he had wanted to bring an action against News Group Newspapers (NGN) first and then decided to also sue MGN, to which Harry replied: “No, I believe I filed the claims at pretty much the same time.” Harry added that there was “industrial-scale destruction of evidence on all sides”.

Jane Kerr, a royal reporter for The Mirror between 1997 and 2005, is now giving evidence.

The court was told that she attempted to avoid giving evidence last week but was “ordered” to attend the trial by the judge, and asked by barrister David Sherborne that “you didn’t want to come today, did you?”, she replied: “No, I didn’t.”

Mr Sherborne, for Prince Harry, said Ms Kerry commissioned private investigators on 900 separate occasions while working at the Mirror, which she said were a regular part of her duties there, The Guardian reports.

After asking the Duke of Sussex a few final questions, Judge Mr Justice Fancourt told him: “Thank you very much Prince Harry, that really is the end of your evidence”.

The duke has remained in court to listen to Jane Kerr, the Mirror’s formal royal editor, who is now being questioned by Harry’s barrister, David Sherborne.

The journalist has been called as a witness by Mirror Group Newspapers, and her byline is on 10 out of 33 articles selected to be discussed in court.

The Duke of Sussex finished giving evidence at about 2.30pm, after almost eight hours of questioning on Tuesday and Wednesday.

In his final question to his client, barrister David Sherborne asked the duke how sitting in the witness box and poring over the relevant news articles “knowing the media is watching” had made him feel.

The duke’s voice is reported to have broken slightly, as he replied: “It’s a lot.”

Prince Harry claims to have found a tracking device on his ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy’s car in South Africa.

Asked how he knew this by his barrister David Sherborne, the Duke of Sussex told the court: “Because we found it.”

Another friend of his had also found a tracking device on his car, the duke said.

Prince Harry’s lawyer David Sherborne has returned to the article about Harry being banned from returning to Afghanistan.

Mr Sherborne pointed the duke to a document and told the court that a £500 payment by the Mirror had gone to a private investigator, asking Harry whether he believed he was speculating when claiming unlawful information-gathering was involved in the story.

After a short pause, the duke replied: “For my whole life, the press misled me, covered up the wrongdoing, and sitting here in court knowing that the defence has the evidence in front of them and for Mr Green to suggest I’m speculating … I’m not sure what to say about that.”

The court session has resumed and Harry’s own lawyer David Sherborne has questioned him about the opposing barrister Andrew Green’s repeated claims that the duke had entered the “realm of speculation”.

Harry told the court he dd not believe he was speculating, adding that it was “even more destructive” that the phrase “in the realms of speculation” was used “as a headline this morning against me”.

That quote appeared on the front page of today’s Daily Mail, the publisher of whom Harry is also bringing legal action against.

Earlier in his evidence, the Duke of Sussex denied he was “cavorting” with a woman at rugby match at Twickenham in London in March 2009.

Harry challenged the contents of March 2009 Daily Mirror article which alleged he “openly cavorted with his new girlfriend Astrid Harbord” in a hospitality box.

He told the court that he and Ms Harbord were “never in a relationship”, adding: “Everything that was highlighted was not true”.

“I wasn’t cavorting,” Harry said, after Andrew Green KC, for MGN, said he had been in public.

In his written witness statement, the duke said: “This kind of article from the defendant was just embarrassing for me. Friends teased me, it created an awkwardness between me and whichever girl was at the subject of the story.”

He said he had been shown six payments to a private investigator relating to Ms Harbord, “which shows that she was of prior interest to the Mirror”.

Asked in court whose mobile phone he thought was hacked, Harry replied: “I’m not sure because the evidence has been destroyed.”