PRINCE HARMING
THE
Times
’s desperation to link the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to anything that might reflect badly on them led it into disaster twice in the same week.
On 13 October, chief news correspondent David Brown was dispatched to cover the first day of a Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal case against Christopher Hutchings, a reputation and privacy specialist with law firm Hamlins. Flushed with excitement that Hamlins had previously represented Prince Harry in his case against sister paper the Sun, Brown and his editors rushed a report on to their website under a headline which began “Prince Harry’s solicitor…” – but failed to clock that at preliminary hearings back in June, all parties to the SDT case (which centres on an alleged SLAPP action which has absolutely nothing to do with Prince Harry) had agreed to grant anonymity to several individuals whom the Times blithely went on to identify.