By Roger Pearson
A High
Court battle between the Prince of Wales and The Mail on Sunday over
publication of his private journals looks set to go ahead in public as
early as next month.
Mr Justice Kitchin has already imposed an order barring publication
of details about the journals and their recipients until the trial.
This
week, giving his reasons for that order which was imposed in December,
Mr Justice Kitchin said he saw “a real prospect” that the hearing would
be public, if appropriate safeguards are put in place.
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The judge
said that the prince had, over a number of years, kept hand-written
journals “detailing his personal impressions and private views of his
overseas tours”, which he then circulates to members of his family,
close friends and advisers.
The judge added that these
proceedings concerned a number of such journals, which Prince Charles
says are confidential and protected by copyright.
Mr Justice Kitchin said that one of the journals contained recollections of the prince’s official visit to Hong Kong in 1997.
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It was circulated to 13 recipients in an envelope marked “Private and Confidential”.
However,
he claims that a then employee in his household – Sara Goodall –
wrongly copied a number of the journals, including the Hong Kong
journal, removed those copies from the claimant’s private office and
subsequently gave copies of them, through an intermediary, to The Mail
on Sunday.
The MoS published quotations and other material from the journal.
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