Prince Harry: 'Greedy' private investigator apologies for 'robbing' duke of teenage years

A private investigator has apologised for targeting the phone of Prince Harry's ex-girlfriend and admitted he helped "rob" the duke of his teenage years.

Gavin Burrows said there had been a "ruthless" culture in parts of the media during the early 2000s when he said Chelsy Davy's phone had been under surveillance.

Mr Burrows told a BBC documentary called The Princes And The Press that there was much greater interest in the Duke of Sussex than his brother, William, when he began working for the now defunct News of the World in 2000.

Editors told him putting Harry on the front page would sell more newspapers than the Duke of Cambridge.

"As explained to me by a couple of editors, Harry had basically become the new Diana," he said.

Mr Burrows is a witness in a legal case against the News of The World and The Sun, according to the BBC, but his claims are yet to be tested in court and are disputed.

Harry filed legal proceedings against News Group Newspapers and Reach in 2019, just days after it was announced his wife, the Duchess of Sussex, was suing the Mail on Sunday after the newspaper published a letter she wrote to her father.

Mr Burrows said: "There was a lot of voicemail hacking going on, there was a lot of surveillance work on her phones, on her comms.

"Chelsy would brag to her friends when she was going to see him."

He added that investigators were interested in her medical records, ex-boyfriends and details of her education.

Mr Burrows said he was "very sorry" and explained: "I was greedy, I was into my cocaine, and I was living in a fake state of grandeur.

He added there was a "ruthless" culture in the media, saying: "They've got no morals - they absolutely have got no morals.

"I was basically part of a group of people who robbed him (Harry) of his normal teenage years."

The News of the World folded in 2011 after details emerged of extensive phone hacking at the newspaper.

The paper's publishers, News Group Newspapers, have settled several claims brought against it by several celebrities, including Hugh Grant and David Tennant, but has never made any admission of liability in relation to allegations involving The Sun.

The High Court heard last year that a journalist at The Sun was sent Ms Davy's phone billing data, which had been illegally obtained, by another private investigator.

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Documents disclosed to the claimants' legal team were said to reveal in 2005, South Africa-based private investigator, Mike Behr, sent Ms Davy's phone records to The Sun's then-royal correspondent, Duncan Larcombe, in an email titled "March records".

A spokesperson for Harry and Meghan's Archewell Foundation declined to comment. NGN has been approached for comment.