Former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre to be witness in trial brought by Prince Harry and others

Judge warns he will not permit case ‘to descend into a wide-ranging public inquiry’

The former editor of the Daily Mail, Paul Dacre, is to be called as a witness in the legal action brought by the Duke of Sussex and six other household names against the newspaper’s publishers over allegations of unlawful information gathering, the high court was told.

Antony White KC, for Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), said Dacre, 77, now the editor-in-chief of ANL’s DMG Media company, and Peter Wright, a former editor of the Mail on Sunday, could be called as early defence witnesses in the trial, scheduled to begin on 19 January.