Privacy trial judge asks why Piers Morgan has not given evidence

The judge presiding over the privacy case brought by Prince Harry and others has questioned why journalists including Piers Morgan have not appeared to give evidence, noting that some have been happy to commentate on the case from the sidelines in recent weeks.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Mr Justice Fancourt listed the names of more than two dozen people he felt could have been brought before him, “in no particular order”, in the case against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN); the publisher of the Daily and Sunday Mirror and the Sunday People.

“There’s a question in my mind whether any of the individuals on my list could and should have given evidence.” They included the former Daily Mirror editor Morgan and Neil Wallis, the former People editor.

Referring to that pair in particular, he said they “relatively recently had a lot to say about this matter outside of court”.

He also said questions had been raised about why “three or four associates of the Duke of Sussex” had not given evidence in the case against MGN.

Morgan has denied involvement in phone hacking – one of the issues at hand in the case being heard in the high court. After a three-week trial in 2015, Wallis was found not guilty of phone-hacking charges relating to his time at the News of the World, which was not published by the respondent in the present case.

Also on Tuesday, the court heard that the Coronation Street actor Michael Le Vell “burned quite a few bridges” and has been in some “really dark places” over some of the press coverage of his personal life.

The actor, who plays Kevin Webster in the long-running soap, is suing MGN for damages over alleged unlawful information gathering between 1991 and 2011. He has claimed journalists at the publisher’s titles were linked to phone hacking, so-called “blagging” or gaining information by deception and the use of private investigators for unlawful activities.

Tuesday was the final day of evidence in the case as Le Vell, who is bringing the legal action under his real name, Michael Turner, finished his time in the witness box. In written evidence placed before the court, Le Vell said he became “extremely paranoid” about stories about him, and that he blamed people around him. “I feel like I wasted quite a lot of years alienating quite a lot of decent people in my life. I’ve burned quite a few bridges.”

The trial is due to conclude at the end of the month, with a ruling expected at a later date.