"Prince Harry suffered a legal setback yesterday when a judge intervened to stop some of his witnesses giving ‘commentary’ – rather than relevant evidence – at his trial against the publisher of The Sun.
The newspaper has urged the court to prevent the Duke of Sussex turning the forthcoming court case into a ‘public inquiry’ against the Press.
And yesterday Mr Justice Fancourt ordered Harry’s lawyers to cut down a string of witness statements, including those from former prime minister Gordon Brown, ex-Commons Speaker John Bercow and singer Charlotte Church’s mother Maria.
He said that some of what they had to say was ‘merely commentary or argument’.
Under courtroom rules, witnesses can only give evidence of fact directly relevant to a case.
It is less than two weeks until a blockbuster trial expected to last for eight weeks starts at the High Court between Prince Harry, along with former Labour deputy leader Lord Tom Watson, against News Group Newspapers."
"..........But the judge said in a written ruling that the content of many of their witness statements ‘shows either a lack of proper understanding’ of the court rules ‘or indifference’ to them.
He added: ‘It appears to me that some of the witnesses... wished to express their strong opinions about the way that they were treated by the [newspaper group], or pass comment’.
He said Harry’s lawyers should have excluded such elements but had ‘failed to do so’.
Mr Justice Fancourt ordered that the statements of ten witnesses be cut down.
In addition to those of Mr Brown and Mr Bercow, statements from former Liberal Democrat ministers Sir Vince Cable and Chris Huhne must also be trimmed.
The judge said Harry’s legal team had already agreed that some of what the witnesses said ‘will not be relied upon’ and other parts were ‘plainly not evidence’ that could be given at trial ‘and/or is merely commentary or argument’.
Turning to two other potential witnesses, including Charlotte Church’s mother, the judge said ‘none, or virtually none’ of their evidence was ‘relevant to the issues that the court has to determine, and/or is merely commentary or argument’.
In his ruling, the judge awarded the newspaper half of its costs relating to the argument over witness statements, saying it had been partly successful but also ‘overly optimistic’ in other respects in seeking to pare down the evidence."
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14257003/Prince-Harry-legal-judge-witnesses-trial.html
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