Harold Fails To Get A Summary Judgment
While the unofficial Harkle spokesperson gets caught fibbing about 'their' book
Justice Nicklin delivered his decision on Harold’s application for a summary judgment against ANL—this case was for alleged defamation and damage to his reputation over the alleged offer to pay for security when Harold told it would be withdrawn when he ceased to be a working member of the RF. The case went back and forth, and Harold amended his claim, focusing on the alleged defamation claims that the article damaged his reputation.
The importance of this case is to distinguish between statements that are opinions versus statements that are written as facts that are untrue. What is relevant is that Justice Nicklin is stating that ANL have a ‘real prospect’ of succeeding in the case at trial, and is effectively suggesting that Harold withdraw his claim. That would mean that ANL could claim legal costs from Harold.
https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Sussex-v-ANL-Judgment.pdf
The Court’s decision
For the reasons explained in today’s judgment ([50]-[65]), the Court has refused the Duke of Sussex’s Dismissal Application. The Court concluded that the Defendant’s defence of honest opinion has a real prospect of success and should go forward to trial.
The Defendant has a real prospect, at trial, of demonstrating that the Duke of Sussex had not made an offer to the Government to pay for his security before he began his proceedings for judicial review. At trial, the Court may find that the Sandringham offer is irrelevant to the defence of honest opinion ([58]).
The honest opinion defence does not rely upon a just one fact. The Defendant has a real prospect, at trial, of demonstrating (at least) the following facts ([60]):
(a) that the Press Statement suggested that, prior to the judicial review claim, the Duke of Sussex had made at least one previous offer to the Government to pay for his State security, which offer(s) had been rejected by the Government;
(b) that the Background Briefing suggested that the judicial review claim was a challenge to the Government’s refusal to accept the Claimant’s offer to pay for his State security; and
(c) that these suggestions were not accurate, or at least did not give the full story.
A further hearing will be held on 12 December 2023 to determine the Order based on the judgment made, which could mean Harold could drop the case, where an order for costs could be made, or Harold would proceed with the case and further dates for the trial will be decided. When looking at Harold’s legal cases the common factor is that he uses witness statements as a means to put out statements into the public domain to air his petty grievances and to attack and criticise those who did not give into his demands, despite being warned not to use the courts in this manner back in 2019 by a judge.
Most of us have watched in amusement the back and forth over whether Omid Scobie lied about naming King Charles, and Catherine, Princess of Wales in his ‘Endgame’ novel as ‘racists’ who are said to have discussed the colour of the skin of the child known as Archie. You want to feel a little sorry for the Dutch translators and publishers involved who were accused of adding the names into the manuscripts, as OS initially alleged he had never written them. However, what did they expect when they were working with someone who has a reputation for being frugal with facts and who has been caught out fibbing on a witness statement that was submitted to a court of law. He was saved by the fact that the judge (Warby) granted TW a summary judgment so the case didn’t go to trial and he didn’t suffer the consequences of perjury, and only after Knauf had the guts (or was given permission) to disclose the emails that proved TW, Harold, and OS had been frugal with the facts when asked if they had been in contact or had collaborated in any way for the ‘Finding Freedom’ novel. All parties claim there had been no contact, where the numerous emails indicate there had been contact, plus deliberate moves to avoid detection of the contact being made.
Who are the sources for the content of the book? If they are friends of the Harkles then they would have been briefed and given them permission to talk, or perhaps the ‘friends’ were Harold and TW looking in a mirror?
OS’s agents then had to come clean and admitted that a draft copy of the manuscript (probably before legal tore it apart) was sent to the Dutch publishers and translators. Still, OS was sticking to his story that he never wrote any names, and the Dutch publisher, Xander Uitgevers issued a statement saying this was ‘factually incorrect’. Finally, OS admitted that he had written the names in an early draft that he claims had not been cleared. He wrote it, he had control???
The truth has come out only because OS couldn’t deny it, the translators did not insert names into the text, and that leaves us with which parties are going to sue? Was it a genuine mistake or not? In this day and age with lawyers going over manuscripts, editors and proofreaders it would have been easy to spot before going to print. Would the Dutch publishers and translators sue OS for trying to pin the blame on them, which is why he may have admitted to the truth?
And then the big question of whether BP will seek legal redress? IMHO, they were stupid to allow OS to remain on the Royal Rota when he wasn’t even working for a major publication all these years when they knew he was/or was likely to have been on the Harkle payroll. The parties may dispute this, but by using third parties to hire and pay, the money trail goes back to the original party, just like a mafia boss who outsources all their dirty work to minions so that it can’t be traced back to them. Did BP know all of this? Apparently they did find out a few years ago, but did they act? It appears they didn’t.
Meanwhile, Car Park Meg, stages more pap strolls and it appears that staff are being paid to video these PR stunts, who then try and sell them to Backgrid for a few bucks because that’s all they are worth.
The failure to have the summary judgment granted may account for why Harold has been pushing his, ‘I was forced to leave the UK,’ bust doesn’t actually say why, although we know it was because TW didn’t get what she wanted. In addition, there is evidence the duo had planned to leave in 2018, with the registration of Archewell domain names just after they had been ‘kicked’ out of KP and where they were probably told that they were being removed from The Royal Foundation as well. This was, as we now know around the time the bullying allegations had been formally filed at Clarence House. The Harkles knew their time was limited.
While the courts have denied Harold permission to challenge the government over paying for police protection privately, he is now pushing to challenge RAVEC on their decision to ‘downgrade’ his security detail. His main grievances are that Sir Edward Young, (Her Late Majesty’s Private Secretary) who was there to represent her was present because Harold had issues with him, and believed Young was influential in ‘blocking’ his requests to his late granny, and that RAVEC did not take into account potential threats to his life. Harold and his legal team could only come up with an example of a threat when a handful of paparazzi at a WellChild event in Kew Gardens (that was in a private venue) took photos of him back in June 2021.
The truth is that there was no real threat, and the paparazzi only knew of Harold’s movements because the Harkle PR had informed them of the event. As it happens, the case has revealed that Harold failed to inform RAVEC of his activities within the 28 days as required for security to be evaluated and only gave 19 days notice. Harold cannot claim he did not know of the WellChild event either as it had been moved to June 30th 2021 (from a usual September date) to accommodate Harold, who was in the country for the unveiling of the Diana statue on the anniversary of her birth. Such an event would have taken months to organise, not only booking the venue, but to also inform all the guests and award winners and arrange transport for them.
While Harold pleads to the courts that his wife and ‘children’ would be in danger if they were in the UK without a specific security detail, isn’t he clutching at straws? His cousins and their children do not have RPO security details any longer and they manage just fine, and Harold’s royal aunts and uncles do not have 24/7 security either and they cope. In any event, the Harkle family were in the UK during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations and appeared to be perfectly safe apart from the booing and jeers from the public, but no protection details can do anything about that.
RAVEC do provide Harold protection if he needs it on a case by case basis, but this isn’t good enough for him and he expects and wants more. That’s the crux of the matter, but if he is exiled from the UK, then doesn’t this all become a moot point? Some may wonder why Harold has been using the courts to issue statements that have attacked and criticised the monarchy and other named persons that are at times irrelevant to the case at hand, and that is because court documents are protected from libel, and perhaps that’s why Harold is using the judicial system as his own media platform. Many believe this to be the case, and it is up to the judges to put a halt to it. TW got away with it because her ANL case began when she was still a working member of the RF (even though they had planned to leave and BP/RF knew this already) and they foolishly ‘protected’ her and now the duo are making a mockery of the judiciary. Inaction has consequences as BP and RF are discovering.