Phone hacking trial: Prince Harry voicemail message ‘hacked by News of the World’

Prosecutor Andrew Edis told jurors that the story came from an illegally accessed voicemail message

The News of the World illegally hacked into a voicemail message left by Prince Harry to uncover a story that the Royal had broken rules at military training academy Sandhurst by asking an aide for help with an essay, a court heard today.

Prosecutor Andrew Edis QC told jurors at the Old Bailey that the story, published on 18 December 2005, came from a voicemail message illegally accessed by private investigator Glenn Mulcaire on behalf of the newspaper’s former royal editor Clive Goodman.

It is claimed that the News of the World’s then editor Andy Coulson was also aware of what was happening.

Mr Edis said the story, which ran under the headline “Harry's aide helps out on Sandhurst exams”, was one of a number cited by Goodman as he tried to justify paying Mulcaire a weekly retainer. The prosecutor added that the story “got into the paper and was based entirely on a voicemail.”

Goodman is one of eight people who deny a series of charges at the trial of former News of the World journalists. In 2007 he was jailed for phone hacking and subsequently dismissed.

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