Royal phones hacked by tabloid staff, court hears
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The phones of Prince William’s wife Kate Middleton and Prince Harry, Queen Elizabeth’s grandson, were hacked by staff working for Rupert Murdoch’s now-defunct News of the World tabloid, a London court was told yesterday.
Prosecutor Andrew Edis told the Old Bailey criminal court that recordings of messages to Kate from William, including one in which he called her “Babykins,” were discovered at the home of the paper’s ex-royal editor and a private eye working for the tabloid in 2006.
Then-editor Andy Coulson, who was later Prime Minister David Cameron’s media chief, is on trial, along with six others, on charges that include conspiracy to illegally intercept voicemails from mobiles. They all deny the charges.
“Hi baby, it’s me,” William, second-in-line to the British throne, said in one message read to the jury by Edis.
The prince was at the military academy Sandhurst at the time and he tells his then-girlfriend how he almost got shot while on a training exercise.
“I walked into some other regiment’s ambush, which was slightly embarrassing because I nearly got shot. Not by live rounds but by blank rounds, which would be very embarrassing though,” the message said.
He adds he might later send her “a cheeky text,” ending the call “All right, baby, lots of love.”
In another voicemail, he refers to Kate by her pet name “Babykins”, while in a further call he discusses plans to go “beagling” — hunting with beagle dogs, Edis said.
Details which featured in the calls later appeared in exclusive News of the World stories.
‘Best looking ginger’
The court also heard extracts of a message left on the phone of Williams’s younger brother Harry in which an unknown male put on a high voice and pretended to be the prince’s then-girlfriend Chelsy Davy.
“I just want to say I miss you so much and I think you are the most, best looking ginger I have ever seen — although you really are quite ugly for a ginger,” said the transcript which was shown to the jury.
“I’ll see you very soon, you big, hairy, fat ginger.”
The paper later ran a story saying the joke message was left by William for his brother.
It was the first time it had been disclosed that royal family members were victims.
The News of the World’s former royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were charged with hacking the telephones of royal aides.
Goodman and Mulcaire later admitted the charges and were sentenced to four and six months in jail respectively in January 2007.
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