The marathon phone-hacking action brought by Prince Harry and others against the publisher of the Mail titles seems to have dropped out of the headlines. But a couple of witness statements presented last week piqued Obiter’s interest.
One is from the excellently named Daniel Portley-Hanks (pictured) of Laurel Canyon Boulevard, otherwise known as ‘Detective Danno’. His 18-page statement begins with an account of a ‘misspent childhood’ which ended in 1972 when he was jailed for federal offences. His experience included being the only male prisoner in a ‘co-ed’ establishment and witnessing a fatal stabbing in the chow line at San Quentin.
For 20 years, according to his statement, he worked as a private investigator – ‘a database guy’ – for the Mail and Mail on Sunday. Among the names mentioned as targets for his investigation are Yoko Ono, Jennifer Lopez and Muhammad Ali. As for Prince Harry, ‘I know that I did unlawful stuff on him but cannot recall what exactly’.
What Mr Justice Nicklin makes of that remains to be seen.
In the meantime, the judge must settle an argument over the evidence of another former investigator. Gavin Burrows is currently abroad, refusing to disclose his location to the parties, even on a ‘lawyer-only’ basis. The claimants’ lawyers argue that without such disclosure, permission to provide evidence remotely must be refused. The defendants would rather like the court to hear what he has to say.
The hearing, we must stress even more emphatically than usual, continues.
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