Rebecca English Denies Using Private Investigator to 'Blag' Harry Details
The Daily Mail’s royal editor, Rebecca English, has denied employing a private investigator to unlawfully obtain information about the Duke of Sussex and his former girlfriends. This denial came during a high court trial where she was presented with emails suggesting the investigator "went out on a limb" to assist her.
English’s name appears on six articles cited by Prince Harry in his legal case against Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL), the publisher of the Daily Mail. Harry is one of seven claimants suing ANL, alleging that its journalists engaged in phone hacking and other illegal information-gathering methods. ANL denies all allegations, maintaining that its stories were obtained legitimately.
Investigator Mike Behr and Allegations of Unlawful Information Gathering
The allegations primarily concern work by Mike Behr, a private investigator based in South Africa, whom English described as "a freelance journalist who could help on Africa stories."
During her appearance at the London High Court, English was questioned about receiving precise flight information for Chelsy Davy in December 2007, during her relationship with Prince Harry.
David Sherborne, the lead barrister representing the claimants, showed English an email from Behr, which was also copied to a Sun journalist. The email contained flight details about a holiday Davy was taking with Harry. In the message, Behr also inquired whether English and the Sun reporter "can plant someone next to her?"
"The information could only have been obtained from the computer system of the airline," Sherborne stated, suggesting it was acquired through a "blag," meaning unlawfully obtained information.
English responded that she did not recall the email and "did not ask" for such flight details. She said,
"[Behr] was never asked for anything like this, ever. That is something I would never even consider doing, now or then."
Regarding the suggestion of planting someone next to Davy, English said,
"It’s an absolutely shameful suggestion both by him and by you … clearly there’s no reply to this email, which emphasises my belief that I never actually saw it."
Sherborne asserted that unlawfully obtained information was then used in a story about a "make-or-break holiday" for Harry and Davy. English denied this, stating that the information for the story likely came from students at the University of Leeds, where Davy studied, who were "friends with Chelsy Davy and part of her circle."
Emails Regarding Payments and Investigator's Conduct
English was also shown a 2006 email from Behr to the same Sun reporter. In it, Behr asked whether he should "take the cost of the airline searches out" of money he had already been paid by the reporter. He added,
"I’ve billed Rebecca £200 for half the cost so I am partly covered."
English explained that payments made to Behr were day rates rather than fees for obtaining specific information.
Further, English was shown an email exchange from 2014 with Behr, in which he stated that a £350 payment from her "for Harry work … simply doesn’t cover the info provided. It’s simply not worth it. I think you know exactly what I mean…"
In a subsequent email, Behr wrote,
"I really don’t want to go into why I’m asking for more in an email. So let’s rather chat when you have the time."
In a third email, he justified the additional payment as warranted "not for time spent but for going out on a limb." English said Behr preferred phone conversations because he was "very difficult to deal with" and often persuaded her to pay him more during calls.
Sherborne suggested that Behr’s £350 payment "doesn’t even cover the bribes he had to pay" to secure unlawfully obtained information related to Harry and his then-girlfriend, Cressida Bonas. English rejected this, saying it was "absolutely untrue" that she ever used Behr to obtain blagged information from hotels or airlines.
English explained that the email exchange referred to their joint efforts to monitor a charity trek Harry was undertaking in Antarctica.
