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

A convicted phone hacker — whose evidence helps Prince Harry sue newspapers — threatened to “destroy” a private detective unless he “came to his side,” a court heard yesterday.

Paul Hawkes said he was warned by former journalist Dan Evans that if he didn’t take part he and his company would be ruined by the anti-press group Hacked Off.

The Duke of Sussex is suing the publisher of The Mirror for phone hacking and other illegal information gathering, which he denies.

One of Harry’s witnesses is Mr Evans, who testified in the case last week. Mr Evans was given a 10-month suspended sentence in 2014 for phone hacking but became a ‘poacher turned game warden’, the court said.

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

In a statement to the Supreme Court, he said: ‘Mr Evans suggested that I had been involved in hacking into Hugh Grant’s computers, which I had not done… Mr Evans then tried to threaten me. He talked to me about getting me ‘on the side’, arguing that it was in my best interest. I remember telling him I had no idea about the case he was talking about.

“When it became clear that I couldn’t help him, Mr. Evans told me that if I wasn’t willing to play along, they would destroy me. [and] Research Associates through costly litigation. I understood with ‘they’ Hacked Off and their lawyers.’

Mr Hawkes added: ‘He also said there had been a brief lull in the phone hacking trials and that Hacked Off, or their lawyers, were using this time and money they were on to find other investigators . . He made it very clear that I 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 highly doubt that in the context of 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 that he had been there on behalf of Hacked Off. Mr Evans said he had told the investigator ‘about the extreme stress and cost involved’ as a defendant in a court case, but had meant this as ’empathy’ for Mr Hawkes. He apologized to him if this had been interpreted in a different way.

The case continues.