Victoria Ward
2026-02-04 08:30:00
Victoria Ward
A private investigator has alleged that a member of Prince Harry’s legal research team made a death threat against him.
Gavin Burrows, a key witness in the British High Court privacy claim brought against the publisher of the Daily Mail, said he was so fearful for his safety that he had asked to give evidence remotely from a secret overseas location.
He will refuse to do so if his hideout is shared with lawyers from either side, the judge was told.
Burrows’ disputed “confession” to unlawful information-gathering for journalists between 1993 and 2011 is at the heart of the case.
He has alleged that a pivotal witness statement in which he appeared to admit to targeting “a large number of private individuals”, including Prince Harry, by hacking phones and bugging cars, was “prepared by others without my knowledge”.
He described the document as “completely false” and said his signature was a forgery.
Five of the seven claimants, including the Duke of Sussex, Sir Elton John and Baroness Doreen Lawrence, have told the High Court they embarked on the high-profile legal action against Associated Newspapers Ltd based on evidence apparently obtained by Burrows.
The court heard on Tuesday that the alleged death threat was made against him via voicemail on behalf of Graham Johnson, a former tabloid journalist and convicted phone hacker who has been working as a key legal researcher and investigator for claimants.
Burrows said he was prepared to share a recording of the relevant message as evidence.
However, Dan Waddell, a fellow member of Johnson’s team, said that he “recognises that the voice on the recording is that of Gavin Burrows himself”.
In a bad-tempered exchange with Justice Matthew Nicklin, David Sherborne, for the claimants, alleged that Burrows was effectively holding the court “to ransom” by putting conditions on his participation.
He said his purported safety fears were “utterly spurious” and that the approach was “highly unorthodox”.
The barrister argued that Burrows should be blocked from providing evidence if he did not disclose his location.
Witness ‘must give up location’
He said the claimants had been put in an “invidious” position but had a right to know where the witness was to ensure justice was served and that he was taking part free from interference or coaching.
Antony White, KC, for Associated Newspapers Ltd, said that in lockdown he had been involved in cases that had taken evidence from abroad and “even a bedsit on the south coast”.
The judge appeared incredulous that Sherborne might seek to prevent such a key witness from giving evidence.
He said there was “no dispute” that Burrows’ evidence was extremely important to the claimants’ case and should be tested in open court.
He eventually agreed to ask the Foreign Office whether there was any legal reason why Burrows could not give evidence from abroad.
The court has previously heard that Burrows was accused of assaulting Johnson and of making two threatening calls to him in a dispute about payments.
Burrows is alleged to have visited the ex-journalist’s home while drunk, verbally threatening him and pushing him in the street while Johnson’s partner and children were inside their home, prompting Johnson to call the police.
Meanwhile, Burrows has told the court that he was contacted by Johnson’s Byline news website on the eve of the trial with what he described as a “blatant attempt to intimidate him”.
Earlier, Daniel Portley-Hanks, a US-based private investigator, admitted that he “did unlawful stuff” on behalf of Mail journalists in relation to Prince Harry but could not “recall what exactly”.
The 79-year-old said he had worked regularly for the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday for more than 20 years and that, as a result, he had lived in a five-bedroom house with $US150,000 ($213,000) in the bank.
“I probably made $US1 million from the Mail on Sunday,” he said.
Work dried up after ethics inquiry
He alleged that following the 2011-12 Leveson Inquiry, work dried up and he was forced to declare bankruptcy.
He described himself as “the database guy”, who could access contacts and other private details, but told the court that until recently he had always believed his work was lawful.
Portley-Hanks said he had once been asked by a Mail journalist to wire money to a former police officer in Florida who would pass it on to a serving officer for access to confidential files concerning Jeffrey Epstein.
White said the documents were sourced from “exhibits placed on the public record” in civil proceedings involving Epstein.
He said Portley-Hanks’ evidence was “lacking in any of the specificity which should be expected to support such serious allegations”.
Portley-Hanks also described for the first time how Epstein’s victim, Virginia Giuffre, was tracked down to Australia, where she was running a cupcake shop.
She was interviewed and shared the now-infamous photograph of herself posing with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, triggering the start of his downfall.
Associated Newspapers is a subsidiary of Daily Mail and General Trust, Lord Rothermere’s holding company, which has agreed to acquire the London Daily Telegraph for £500 million ($976 million). The proposed takeover is expected to face regulatory scrutiny in the coming weeks.