Prince Harry loses appeal to restore his UK government-funded security detail

LONDON AP Prince Harry lost his appeal Friday challenging the U K establishment s decision to strip him of his publicly funded protection after he stepped away from royal family duties and moved to the U S The Court of Appeal ruled unanimously that a committee hadn t treated Harry unfairly when it decided to review his protection on a case-by-case basis each time he visits the U K The ruling is likely to leave the Duke of Sussex with a large bill to pay the U K establishment s legal fees in addition to his own lawyers costs It wasn t this instant clear if he would try to appeal to the U K Supreme Court The ruling upheld a High Court judge s decision last year that discovered that a bespoke plan for the Duke of Sussex s shield wasn t unlawful irrational or unjustified Harry made a rare appearance for the two-day hearing last month as his lawyer argued that his life was in danger and the Royal and VIP Executive Committee had singled him out for inferior medication There is a person sitting behind me who is being informed he is getting a special bespoke process when he knows and has experienced a process that is manifestly inferior in every respect attorney Shaheed Fatima reported His presence here and throughout this appeal is a potent illustration were one needed of how much this appeal means to him and his family A lawyer for the leadership noted that Harry s argument repeated his misconceived approach that failed in the lower court It involves a continued failure to see the wood for the trees advancing propositions available only by reading small parts of the evidence and now the judgment out of context and ignoring the totality of the picture attorney James Eadie commented Harry and his wife Meghan Duchess of Sussex had stepped back from their official roles in the family in because they didn t feel they were being protected by the institution his lawyer announced After doing so a Home Office committee ruled there was no basis for publicly funded shield aid for the duke and duchess within Great Britain Harry claimed that he and his family are endangered when visiting his homeland because of hostility aimed at him and Meghan on social media and through relentless hounding by news media Since he lost his government-sponsored protection Harry faced at least two serious safeguard threats his lawyer declared in court papers Al-Qaida had published a document that commented Harry s assassination would please Muslims and he and his wife were involved in a dangerous pursuit by paparazzi in New York Harry the younger son of King Charles III has bucked royal family convention by taking the regime and tabloid press to court where he has a mixed record He lost a related court situation in which he sought permission to privately pay for a police detail when in the U K A judge denied that offer after a executive lawyer argued officers shouldn t be used as private bodyguards for the wealthy But he won a important achievement at trial in against the publisher of the Daily Mirror when a judge ascertained that phone hacking at the tabloid was widespread and habitual He claimed a monumental triumph in January when Rupert Murdoch s U K tabloids made an unprecedented apology for intruding in his life for years and agreed to pay substantial damages to settle his privacy invasion lawsuit He has a similar scenario pending against the publisher of the Daily Mail