Prince Harry returns to court for second day of privacy claim hearing

Duke is one of a group that is taking action against newspaper publisher

Prince Harry waves to the media as he arrives at the Royal Courts Of Justice in London. AP

Prince Harry has returned to the Royal Courts of Justice for the second day of a High Court hearing over multiple privacy claims brought against the publisher of the Daily Mail.

The Duke of Sussex arrived at the central London court just after 10am for the second day of a preliminary hearing in his claim against Associated Newspapers.

The royal arrived outside the court building with a security team, but unlike Monday was not jostled by photographers.

He is part of a group – along with Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Sir Elton John and David Furnish, former Liberal Democrat MP Sir Simon Hughes and actresses Sadie Frost and Liz Hurley – bringing claims over allegations that Associated Newspapers carried out or commissioned illegal or unlawful information-gathering.

The allegations include the hiring of private investigators to place listening devices inside cars and the accessing and recording of private phone conversations.

Lawyers for Associated Newspapers, which is also the publisher of The Mail on Sunday and MailOnline, said the allegations were “firmly” denied and that the “stale” claims had been brought too late as it made a bid to throw out the cases.

Prince Harry, Sir Elton, Mr Furnish, Baroness Lawrence and Ms Frost all attended at least part of the start of a four-day hearing on Monday.

Associated Newspapers is making a bid to have the claims dismissed without a trial.

Adrian Beltrami, KC, for the publisher, argued in written submissions that the legal actions had been brought too late and that the cases were “largely inferential”.

He said that unless lawyers for the people bringing the claim make an application, some aspects of the cases should be thrown out, as they breach orders made by Lord Justice Leveson as part of the inquiry bearing his name into press standards.

The hearing before Mr Justice Nicklin is due to end on Thursday, with a decision expected at a later date.