A couple have gone on trial accused of leaking a stream of ‘gossip and tittle-tattle’ about Prince William and Harry to journalists in exchange for money.
Former Colour Sergeant at Sandhurst John Hardy, 44, of Millbrook Close, Oswaldtwistle, is alleged to have been paid nearly £24,000 by The Sun in exchange for scoops and exclusives about the princes time at Sandhurst, the Old Bailey heard.
Mr Hardy is charged with misconduct in a public office between February 2006 and October 2008.
His wife Claire, 41, who allegedly channelled some of her husband’s payments through her bank, is also charged with aiding and abetting him.
They deny the charges.
The jury heard how Royal Editor Duncan Larcombe, 39, of High Street, Aylesford, Kent, was allegedly fed stories by John Hardy, a career soldier with the Scots Guard, on 34 occasions in exchange for more than £23,700.
Larcombe is charged with aiding, abetting, counselling and procuring John Hardy in the offence.
The Sun’s former chief reporter John Kay, 71, of Asmuns Hill, Golders Green, north London, is also accused of paying a Ministry of Defence official for information over the eight-year period. Former deputy editors Geoffrey Webster, 55, of East Winchett, Goudhurst, Kent and Fergus Shanahan, 59, of Cock Green, Felsted, Essex, are alleged to have authorised the payments, sometimes in consultation with then-editor Rebekah Brooks, who was acquitted at an earlier trial of plotting to commit misconduct in a public office.
Opening the trial, prosecutor Michael Parroy QC said: “This trial is about greed. It is about public employees who were prepared, for money, to sell to the press stories which they had obtained in the course of their work.
“By this process they abused the trust placed in them by the public, you and I, to keep such private information private.
“As far as the press were concerned, they were prepared to buy this material because they were greedy for stories, front page exclusives and the like.”
“The value placed on the information or material provided by these public officials, be they MoD official or soldier, was newsworthiness.
He added: “Tittle-tattle and gossip about the royal Princes, William and Harry, had a special value, as did titbits involving salacious or embarrassing conduct - ‘splashes’ as they called them - involving the revelation of such things as affairs between serving soldiers or their civilian counterparts; a ‘love triangle’.
John Kay, Fergus Shanahan and Geoffrey Webster are charged with conspiring with each other to commit misconduct in a public office between January 2004 and January 2012.
All deny the charges and the trial is expected to last three months.
