Prince Harry court docket case: Ex-Mirror royal journalist Jane Kerr denies ‘closing her eyes’ to alleged illegal actions

A former royal correspondent and assistant editor for the Daily Mirror has denied “closing her eyes” to alleged cellphone hacking or any illegal data gathering actions.

Jane Kerr’s title is on 10 of the 33 articles that type the premise of Prince Harry‘s lawsuit in opposition to the newspaper’s writer, Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN).

She entered the witness field on the High Court on Wednesday instantly after the Duke of Sussex finished his own evidence – telling the court docket it had been “a lot” to undergo tales written about him so publicly.

Ms Kerr labored as a royal reporter after which royal correspondent for the Mirror from 1996 to 2005, earlier than shifting to the paper’s newsdesk and later the Sunday Mirror as options editor, earlier than leaving journalism to work in communications.

She confronted cross-examination from Harry’s lawyer, David Sherborne, who mentioned she had been ordered by the court docket to offer proof, because the duke stayed on to observe the proceedings.

Ms Kerr was requested about two personal investigators, together with one referred to as Jonathan Stafford, who she talked about in a second witness assertion submitted to the court docket, however not her first.

In her second assertion, Ms Kerr mentioned she had been knowledgeable by MGN’s solicitors of 1 fee file to Mr Stafford and one from Census Searches Ltd “which refer to my name”.

Mr Stafford was not her contact, she mentioned, however he had been utilized by the news desk to get phone numbers.

“I don’t know how he got telephone numbers and never asked how. I certainly wouldn’t have told him how to do it,” she mentioned in her assertion.

Asked by Mr Sherborne about one other, Franco Ray, Ms Kerr mentioned she “vaguely” remembers him, however that there was “no way” she would have instructed him to hold out illegal data gathering.

Mr Ray was a contract journalist who would offer a narrative or background data, Ms Kerr instructed the court docket, including that she didn’t interrogate how he would receive the small print.

Read extra on Prince Harry case:
Who is Jane Kerr?
The people named in Harry’s witness statement

“I would ask them to do specific things, for example talk to somebody or interview them – I’d expect them to do what I would do.”

She added that she “wouldn’t expect them to do anything illegal”.

Asked by Mr Sherborne if she “closed her eyes” to what Mr Ray was allegedly doing, Ms Kerr replied: “No… they were people who provided us with stories, I had no reason to think they were obtained unlawfully.”

Ms Kerr was additionally requested about “dozens of payments” allegedly made to 1 agency – which might perform “genealogy/family tree research”.

She instructed the court docket she didn’t consider their practices have been illegal.

‘It did not happen to me to ask’

The former reporter was additionally questioned about commissioning a third-party firm 900 instances throughout her time on the Mirror, for data akin to dates of beginning and addresses, regardless of the paper gaining access to a database which may carry out comparable searches at no cost.

It is implied that the corporate was being instructed to search out out greater than requested, to which Ms Kerr responded by saying she “just made the calls”.

“You were the assistant news editor at the Daily Mirror – you’re telling the court you instructed a company 900 times to do something you could have done for free and you’ve no idea how they obtained this information?” Mr Sherborne requested.

“It just didn’t occur to me to ask,” she replied.

It is recommended Ms Kerr knew journalists have been utilizing dates of beginning to move on to non-public investigators to entry folks’s voicemails, which she denied.

‘I labored laborious and actually’

In her witness statements, Ms Kerr repeated denials she was concerned in illegal data gathering exercise.

She mentioned: “I would like to reiterate in the strongest terms that I have never engaged in voicemail interception at MGN or elsewhere and I have never instructed private investigators or other third parties to engage in unlawful information gathering activities.

“I labored laborious and actually as a journalist, at all times believing I used to be doing the fitting factor, and I felt proud and privileged to be the Mirror’s royal reporter.

“To be accused of such a thing is extremely upsetting.”

In the opposite assertion, she addressed articles carrying her byline which have been complained about by Harry, saying that in some situations she couldn’t recall the story or the supply of the data.

In relation to a January 2002 Daily Mirror article entitled “Harry’s cocaine ecstasy and GHB parties”, Ms Kerr mentioned she was following up a News of the World story and would have referred to as St James’s Palace to get affirmation.

“I cannot recall this story well and I do not know the source of the quotes in this article,” she mentioned, including that it was prone to have come from a contact of her crime correspondent colleague who was collectively bylined.

She added: “I am aware that there was a payment to a confidential source in respect of this article, but the source was not one of my contacts.”

Harry is suing MGN for damages, claiming journalists at its titles – which additionally embody the Sunday Mirror and Sunday People – have been linked to illegal strategies used to acquire data. MGN denies his allegations.

Ms Kerr will probably be questioned once more on Thursday.