Private investigator denies 'switching sides' in Mail publisher case

A private investigator who was initially a key witness in a privacy case brought by several claimants against the publisher of the Daily Mail, including Prince Harry, has denied "switching sides" out of revenge.

Gavin Burrows allegedly said in a witness statement in August 2021 that he hacked voicemails, tapped landlines and accessed financial and medical information for a journalist at the Mail on Sunday.

On Monday, he told the High Court the statement was a "fake" and that he first heard about it over a year later in a newspaper.

Burrows had previously retracted the statement, in which he is also alleged to have said the group suing the publisher were "a small handful of my targets".

Sir Elton John, actresses Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost are also among the high-profile claimants accusing Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) of "grave breaches of privacy" over a 20-year-period. ANL has denied the allegations.

David Sherborne, for the claimants, repeatedly questioned the private investigator about the statement on Monday - having been given permission by the judge to treat him as a hostile witness and conduct a cross-examination.

Burrows denied Sherborne's suggestion that he changed his position on the statement after an argument with investigative journalist Graham Johnson, who had assisted Prince Harry's legal team in his case.

When Sherborne asked whether he had "decided to switch sides out of revenge", Burrows responded: "It was not a case of switching sides."

Antony White KC, for the publisher, later asked Burrows whether his evidence was revenge. Burrows said it was not, adding: "I am not a person for carrying around grudges."

At one point, Burrows said he "did not make a statement in August... so what's the point of me looking at it?"

He later said it was "getting boring referring to statements I didn't write" and that he was "getting really annoyed about this".

He added: "We have proven this statement is a fake."

The judge intervened to tell Burrows that he appreciated how strongly he felt about the case, but asked him to listen to Sherborne's questions.

The private investigator told the court he had contacted ANL when he first read about the statement in a newspaper in 2023, to tell them he had not given it.

He also said he had asked the publisher to contact Baroness Doreen Lawrence - one of the claimants, whose 18-year-old son Stephen was killed in a racist attack in London in 1993.

"I thought Doreen Lawrence was being conned, so I phoned the Mail and I said 'this isn't true, I haven't given any statements'."

He later added: "I thought I was doing the baroness a favour… I didn't know at that time she was part of the whole script."

Burrows said that he had not seen a newspaper article concerning one of the claimants, Elizabeth Hurley, telling the court: "I don't care about celebrity people."

He was also asked about what work he had done in relation to Sadie Frost, another of the claimants, and her former husband Jude Law.

Burrows said that he did not know who Sadie Frost was until her name came up in the claim.

"I'm not one for watching films… as for Jude Law, I don't know who he is, I can't even recall a film I've seen him in and I will swear on the Bible on that," Mr Burrows said.

Burrows, giving evidence voluntarily via video-link from an undisclosed location, also denied press reports that he was "on the run", adding that he was working for "British interests" from a location he was unable to share.

He told the court he had never worked for ANL, had never been involved in landline tapping, and that he "never carried out unlawful information gathering for ANL".

The court is expected to hear closing submissions in the case on a date yet to be confirmed.

The trial is due to conclude later this month.