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The former deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats found it “distressing” that the publisher of the Daily Mail allegedly targeted him using “unlawful means”, a court has heard.
Sir Simon Hughes said in a witness statement on Tuesday that Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) used private investigators to gather information on him for “their own profit”.
The ex-MP is among seven high-profile figures – including Prince Harry, Sir Elton John, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Liz Hurley and Sadie Frost – suing ANL over allegations of unlawful information gathering, including voicemail interception.
ANL strongly denies wrongdoing and is defending the claims, which it says were brought too late for litigation.
Sir Simon’s claim does not related to any articles ANL published, but rather an alleged incident of unlawful information gathering said to have involved a Mail on Sunday journalist.
The former politician told the court: “It is distressing to realise – having seen the evidence and disclosure provided by Associated – that, like other newspapers, Associated targeted me as well as others using unlawful means and the use of private investigators for the purposes of their own profit.
“The fact that they have remained completely unapologetic for this illegal behaviour is also distressing.”
It is alleged that in April 2006, Greg Miskiw – formerly of the News of the World – co-ordinated the targeting of Sir Simon, which allegedly involved voicemail interception.
Around that time, Miskiw was in communication with Chris Anderson of the Mail on Sunday, David Sherborne – who is representing the claimants – said in a written submission, and that a private investigator called Glenn Mulcaire had obtained information about Sir Simon’s relationship with someone called HJK.
Sherborne said the Mail on Sunday sought to photograph HJK and Sir Simon to “help stand up” the story, and that Mulcaire located HJK for this purpose.
It came a few months after the Sun newspaper had outed Sir Simon as gay, which “generated enormous interest in Sir Simon from numerous other newspapers”.
Antony White KC, representing ANL, asked Sir Simon in court if he had evidence of a potential claim prior to bringing the legal action in 2022.
He was shown a March 2016 email he received from Dr Evan Harris, another former Lib Dem MP and prominent member of campaign group Hacked Off, in which he was asked about “the Mail business”.
Sir Simon told the court the only “Mail business” that was on his mind at the time was journalists from the newspaper waiting outside his house.
White suggested that Sir Simon was being “untruthful”, which the claimant denied.
ANL argues that those bringing the claims were aware they may have had cases against it before the October 2016 cut-off date for legal action.
White said in a written submission that the “chronology leaves no room for doubt that by at least 5 April 2016, Sir Simon was well aware that he had a potential claim against Associated”.
Sir Simon told the court he did not have any evidence about ANL until 2022.
“I was never alerted until March 2019 to the existence of emails between Greg Miskiw and Chris Anderson or records of payments, and did not see any of this evidence for myself until 2022,” he wrote in his witness statement.
The civil trial at the High Court in London is due to conclude in March, with the presiding judge, Mr Justice Nicklin, due to issue a judgement in writing at a later date.
It is Prince Harry’s third major court battle accusing newspaper groups of unlawful behaviour.
In December 2023, he won 15 claims in his case accusing Mirror Group Newspapers of unlawfully gathering information for stories published about him.
Then, in January 2025, the publisher of the Sun agreed to pay “substantial damages” and issued an apology to the Duke of Sussex over claims of unlawful intrusion into his life.
