High Court rules claimants failed to prove unlawful information gathering by publisher
The High Court has dismissed all claims brought by seven prominent individuals against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), ruling that the claimants failed to prove allegations of unlawful information gathering.
In a judgment handed down on 7 July 2026, Mr Justice Nicklin rejected the claims brought by Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon OBE, Elizabeth Hurley, Sir Elton John, David Furnish, Sir Simon Hughes, Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex, and Sadie Frost Law. The proceedings were heard in the King’s Bench Division’s Media and Communications List.
The claimants alleged that ANL, the publisher of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday and MailOnline, had obtained private information through unlawful methods. The allegations included activities such as voicemail interception, telephone tapping, the use of private investigators and obtaining information through deception. Associated Newspapers denied all allegations throughout the proceedings.
Following a 46-day trial, Mr Justice Nicklin concluded that none of the claimants had established that the information relied upon in their cases had been obtained unlawfully. In his judgment, he stated: “For the reasons given in this judgment, each of the claimants’ claims is dismissed.”
The court considered numerous newspaper articles relied upon by the claimants as evidence. The judge found that the claimants could not prove their allegations by relying on broad inferences where realistic, lawful explanations for publication remained available. Instead, each claim had to be assessed on the evidence relating to the specific article concerned.
The judgment also addressed limitation issues in certain aspects of the proceedings. Although the court did not determine limitation issues generally because of its findings on the merits, Mr Justice Nicklin ruled that specific claims brought by Sir Simon Hughes and Sadie Frost Law concerning the Miskiw/Anderson emails would have been statute-barred in any event.
The case forms part of long-running litigation concerning alleged unlawful information gathering by newspaper publishers. Earlier procedural rulings had allowed the claims to proceed to trial, where the court examined detailed evidence over several weeks before reaching its final decision.
The judgment resolves the substantive claims against Associated Newspapers Limited at first instance. A further hearing has been scheduled for 29 and 30 July 2026 to address consequential orders and any remaining issues arising from the judgment.