Gone today, heir tomorrow: Prince Harry skips his first day in court

Nothing is going to stop Prince Harry from having his day in court. Apart from, it turns out, Harry himself.

It’s fair to say that what none of us quite saw coming was that he simply wouldn’t turn up because he had to be at his two-year-old daughter’s birthday party.

His barrister, David Sherborne, in his rather theatrical way, said only that his client’s “travel and security arrangements are such that it is a littly bit tricky”.

A little bit tricky, that is, for Prince Harry to actually turn up on a date that has been scheduled and written in very large letters on the planning schedules of every news organisation in the world for quite some time. But they, and indeed we, perhaps did not consider the fact that Princess Lilibet of Sussex turned two the day before, and that it is quite a long way from Los Angeles to London.

The judge, Mr Justice Fancourt, described himself as being “faintly surprised” that the duke had not deigned to take to the witness stand and begin giving evidence in his own hearing. Mirror Group Newspapers, who the prince is suing for damages, described it as “absolutely extraordinary”. They were absolutely right.

Of course, it’s possible that there really are mitigating circumstances. On the accumulated evidence of Prince Harry’s many concurrent legal actions against most of the UK tabloid newspaper industry, the California-based duke is far more likely to turn up to court when he really doesn’t have to be there, as opposed to not turning up when his presence is essential.

He has, before now, sat at the back of such courtrooms, glowering at the silks while they sift through turgid legal arguments in pre-trial hearings. That kind of behaviour is highly unusual, albeit not as unusual as failing to show up for your own court case.

Still, if Harry’s new self-described “life’s mission” is to dish out a bit of payback to the out-of-control tabloids then this very surprising tactic kind of worked, in its own unlikely way. There must have been a hundred snappers and almost as many TV camera crews set up outside the revolving door of the Rolls Building in the City of London. Not one of them went home with the picture they wanted. There was to be no brush with that famous auburn stubble.

He will, most certainly, be around on Tuesday, when his cross-examination will begin, and that will be an intriguing encounter. The sons of kings tend not to acquaint themselves with the insides of witness boxes in the courts of law.

But that, it hardly needs to be restated, is the whole point here. Sussex is the squadron leader in Sussex vs Others. The number of people – and not just celebrities, but victims of crimes, or the relatives of victims of crimes – have ultimately chosen, over the last twelve years, to take the media’s money and not go to court is because they simply can’t afford to bet their house and lose, even if the odds were so firmly in their favour.

He is the one who’s meant to be prepared to go on to the end, whatever the cost may be; the hard, sharp tip of the battering ram that will break down the door and let the light of the truth come flooding in.

The people who’ve been fighting the fight on phone hacking for a dozen years or more – a lot of them the lowly reporters who carried the can for the big guys – are doing it because they just want to show that there isn’t one set of rules for normal people and another for the powerful.

So it doesn’t help, it really doesn’t, that their princely champion should make it so easy for people to think that’s precisely what he believes. That his belief in his “life’s mission” lacks enough passion to overcome an unfortunate diary clash with his daughter’s birthday.

That if he wants to show that the rich and powerful can’t get away with whatever they want then he really shouldn’t leave the judge, his own court room, and yes, all of the world’s media just hanging around, hoping he might turn up.

Who knows, perhaps some last-minute preparation was required. But that last minute has certainly now elapsed. The prince will certainly be in the witness box on Tuesday. It will be quite the spectacle.