Chelsy Davy 'blitzed' Prince Harry with calls, phone-hacking trial hears
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Version 0 of 1. Prince Harry's former girlfriend, Chelsy Davy, was "driving him nuts" by "blitzing" him with calls and texts when he was training at the Sandhurst military academy, according to claims heard at the trial of ex-News of the World staff. Clive Goodman, the paper's former royal editor, wrote to his editor Andy Coulson in 2005, telling him that the royal family was concerned that she was "incredibly needy" and her contact would distract him from his studies. In an email read out to the jury in the phone-hacking trial, Goodman, who was convicted of hacking-related charges in 2007, told his boss he was having an "independent look" at Davy's phone activity. The full email "on progress so far" on "Harry and Chelsy story" read: "Good off-the-record chat with [redacted] last night. Chelsy is driving Harry nuts, won't leave Harry alone. He's not allowed to use his mobile at Sandhurst until he's off duty but she's blitzing him with dozens of calls and texts when he should be concentrating on his training. "Family likes her well enough but they're worried that she's incredibly needy just at the time when Harry needs to be concentrating on himself. "We've been having a very quiet look at this independently and it works in just over one month she's put in nearly 60 calls to his mobile. That's on top of texts, Harry can only field these after he's finished his training duties sometimes after 10pm." The email finished with the sentence: "He keeps the phone on, but on silent – it buzzes and vibrates so frequently with new M [sic]." Goodman is on trial in relation to alleged corrupt payments to public officials while he was working for the News of the World. The jury heard on Wednesday that Coulson received an email claiming a royal policeman would hand over the Queen's phone book for "the standard price" of £1,000, the phone-hacking trial has heard. It read: "Incredibly useful and he'll be extremely handy in the Peat affair tale. The standard price is £1,000." The story was said to concern a false allegation that a former aide to the Prince of Wales, Sir Michael Peat, was having an affair. Coulson questioned the payment in his reply, saying he had recently signed off on a payment of £750 for another copy of a royal directory. Goodman answered: "This is the harder-to-get one which has the Queen's direct lines to her family in it." On Tuesday, the Old Bailey jury heard that the numbers listed in the Green Book, for the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh, were switch board numbers for Buckingham Palace. The court was told on Wednesday that the News of the World's deputy managing editor, Paul Nicholas, questioned the cash payments of royal stories requested by Goodman. The court heard that Goodman subsequently appealed to Coulson to challenge a decision about payments to Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who has already pleaded guilty to phone-hacking-related charges in the current trial. Goodman protested that Mulcaire, referred to in the email as "Matey", was a very useful source for royal stories. "This contact has become increasingly productive in recent weeks, especially since William started at Sandhurst. We are the only paper getting any information out of there at all about his movements and Kate's," he wrote. Coulson answered: "I'm sorry but he has to go." The trial continues. Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |