A private investigator admits unlawful acts involving Prince Harry as the privacy case unfolds in court

An American private investigator has told the High Court that he carried out unlawful actions in relation to Prince Harry while working for British newspapers, although he said he could no longer recall the exact details of what he did.

The admission came from Dan Portley-Hanks, who provided a written witness statement submitted as evidence in a major privacy case brought by the Duke of Sussex and several other high-profile figures against Associated Newspapers Limited. The publisher denies all allegations of wrongdoing.

Portley-Hanks, now aged 79, said he worked for titles including the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday from the early 1990s until the early 2010s. In his statement, he acknowledged that he had engaged in illegal behaviour connected to Prince Harry, stating plainly that he knew what he had done was unlawful but could not remember precisely how.

Prince Harry is one of seven claimants accusing the publisher of serious breaches of privacy over a period spanning two decades. The case alleges widespread unlawful information gathering, including the use of private investigators and covert techniques. Associated Newspapers Limited has rejected the claims.

Other claimants include Sir Elton John and Baroness Doreen Lawrence, whose son Stephen Lawrence was murdered in a racially motivated attack in 1993. Both have alleged they were also targeted by unlawful data collection.

Portley-Hanks described himself as commonly being known as Detective Danno. He explained that he entered the private investigation industry shortly after being released from prison in 1979, after responding to an advertisement offering training. He later set up his own company and worked for American television programmes before shifting his focus to British tabloids in the mid-1990s.

According to his statement, demand from UK newspapers led him to establish himself as an independent supplier of information to tabloid reporters. He said two journalists at the Mail on Sunday became his primary contacts and that the paper eventually became his most significant client.

Portley-Hanks described himself as a specialist in databases, saying he could quickly obtain phone numbers and private contact details with minimal information. He said journalists frequently asked him to trace individuals and uncover confidential data, often within minutes.

He detailed work he claimed to have carried out on celebrity relationships, including obtaining phone records and personal information relating to well-known figures from the worlds of sport and entertainment. He stated that newspaper articles appeared shortly after he supplied this information, implying a direct link between his activities and published stories.

Addressing Prince Harry directly in his statement, Portley-Hanks said he remembered carrying out work for both the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday involving the duke. He added that he knew the actions were unlawful but could not recall specific methods or incidents.

He also alleged that he had once been asked to transfer money to a former police officer, which he said was then used to pay a serving officer for access to confidential information relating to Jeffrey Epstein. Portley-Hanks said he had been tasked with tracing one of Epstein’s victims during this period.

In closing his statement, Portley-Hanks said he had chosen to come forward late in life because he wanted to do the right thing before he died. He described feeling anguish over the impact his actions had on the privacy of others.

Associated Newspapers Limited strongly challenged the credibility of his claims. In written submissions, its legal team said there was no evidence Prince Harry had been subjected to unlawful information gathering and argued that Portley-Hanks’ statement lacked specificity and reliability.

The publisher also rejected claims of corrupt payments to police officers, arguing that any documents referenced had been obtained from material already on the public record.

The trial is expected to conclude in March, with a written judgment to follow.