Prince Harry’s court case has suffered a major blow as a private investigator has claimed that he never carried out any bugging, disputing a claim put forward by one of the claimants. Baroness Lawrence, like Prince Harry, is one of seven people suing the publishers of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday – Associated Newspapers Limited – for alleged unlawful information gathering.

This includes phone hacking and bugging. However, Baroness Lawrence’s – who is the mother of the murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence – main claim is that private investigator Jonathan Rees had been paid by the Daily Mail – who deny all allegations against them – for “secretly stealing information” about her.

This is something he has now told Channel 4’s investigation programme, Dispatches, that never happened

This revelation comes a month before the trial, which is expected to cost more than £38m, will begin in January.

Baroness Lawrence, who claimed her phone conversations had been listened to, said: “Jonathan Rees confirmed that he had done more things for the Daily Mail… aimed at secretly stealing information about me and the investigations into Stephen’s murder.”

This is something Mr Rees has denied, telling Dispatches that while he was offered to do these things, he “didn’t get involved.”

As reported by The Telegraph, when told that Baroness Lawrence’s witness statement was “based on your confirmation that you had done the bugging operation”, Mr Rees said: “Right, well they’re going to have to rethink that, and their legal team is going to have to re-think that.”

This is not the only blow the upcoming court case has faced so far, as just weeks ago another private investigator Gavin Burrows said a witness statement by Prince Harry’s legal team, which reportedly saw Mr Burrows claim he had been involved in hacking and bugging, was “false”.

Mr Burrow claimed his signature was “forged”.