Prince Harry phone hacker witness threatened to ‘destroy’ private investigator

A convicted phone hacker – whose evidence is helping Prince Harry to sue newspapers – threatened to ‘destroy’ a private investigator unless he came ‘on side’, a court heard yesterday.

Paul Hawkes said he was warned by former journalist Dan Evans that if he did not ‘play ball’, he and his firm would be ruined by anti-Press group Hacked Off.

The Duke of Sussex is suing the publisher of The Mirror, alleging phone hacking and other unlawful information gathering, which it denies.

One of Harry’s witnesses is Mr Evans, who gave evidence in the case last week. Mr Evans was given a ten-month suspended prison sentence in 2014 for hacking phones but became a ‘poacher-turned-gamekeeper’, the court was told.

Mr Hawkes, giving evidence about how his PI firm Research Associates had provided ‘completely legal investigative services’ to The Mirror, helping to trace people, said that in 2016 he was approached by Mr Evans ‘on behalf of Hacked Off’, the campaign group founded by, among others, actor Hugh Grant.

Paul Hawkes (pictured) said he was warned by former journalist Dan Evans that if he did not ‘play ball’, he and his firm would be ruined by anti-Press group Hacked Off

The Duke of Sussex is suing the publisher of The Mirror, alleging phone hacking and other unlawful information gathering, which it denies

In a statement to the High Court, he said: ‘Mr Evans suggested I had been involved in computer hacking Hugh Grant, which I had not… Mr Evans proceeded to try and threaten me. He talked to me about getting me ‘on side’, arguing that it was in my best interests. I remember telling him that I had no idea about the case he was talking about.

‘When it became clear that I could not help him, Mr Evans told me that if I was not willing to play ball, then they would destroy me [and] Research Associates through costly litigation. I understood ‘they’ to mean Hacked Off and their lawyers.’

Mr Hawkes added: ‘He also said words to the effect that there had been a bit of a lull in the phone hacking litigation and that Hacked Off, or their lawyers, were using this time and the funds they were sitting on to find other investigators. He made it very clear that me and my company could be financially ruined by the lawyers.’

Mr Hawkes repeatedly stressed that everything he and his firm of private investigators did was based on ‘open source’ information and within the law.

In a statement, Mr Evans said: ‘I seriously doubt in the context of any conversation I would make any threat to ‘destroy’ anyone.’

He said Mr Hawkes’ description of their meeting was ‘not my recollection of events’ and denied he had been there on behalf of Hacked Off. Mr Evans said he had told the investigator ‘of the extreme stress and expense involved’ in being a defendant in a legal case, but that he had meant this as ’empathy’ towards Mr Hawkes. He offered him an apology if this had been interpreted in any other way.

The case continues.