text: Phone-Hacking Trial 
   
   Rupert Murdoch’s ‘News of the World’ intercepted Kate Middleton and Prince Harry's voicemails, prosecutors alleged in a London court on Thursday. 
   
   Kate Middleton and Prince Harry had their phones hacked by Rupert Murdoch’s biggest selling newspaper, a court in London heard on Thursday. 
   
   
   
   It is the first time the Murdoch media empire has been accused of illegally accessing the phone of a member of the royal family: previous allegations have centered on the hacking of phones used by royal aides. The now-shuttered Sunday tabloid, the News of the World, is accused of accessing Middleton’s voicemails to gain embarrassing personal details about her and Prince William. 
   
   The court heard that a series of private messages that were intended to be shared only by the two young lovers have recently been unearthed as part of the police investigation. "Hi, baby. It's me," began one of the messages left by her then boyfriend, Prince William, in 2006. In another, he calls her "babykins". 
   
   In a message that was allegedly left on Harry’s phone, William, the future King of England assumed a falsetto voice and pretended to be his brother’s girlfriend Chelsy Davy. “I really miss you,” he joked. “Hopefully I'll see you very soon you big hairy fat ginger.” The jury was told by the prosecution lawyer, Anthony Edis QC, about eight voicemail messages recorded by Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator who has pleaded guilty to a second charge of phone hacking earlier this year. 
   
   
   
   The explosive allegations are the latest in a series of damning claims of corrupt and illegal practices that the prosecution says were endemic at the News of the World. 
   
   In prosecution evidence in mid-November, the jury at the Old Bailey were shown a note seized from Mulcaire on his arrest in 2006, entitled “target evaluation.” Eighteen names were on the list including Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, then private secretary to Prince William and Harry; Helen Asprey, another royal aide; and Mark Dyer, a royal equerry to Charles and his two sons. Recent evidence has alleged the Sunday tabloid targeted Patrick Harverson, Prince Charles’s communications secretary. 
   
   Prince Harry and the Duchess of Cambridge are the highest profile alleged victims of phone hacking to emerge during the first two months in the trial of Rebekah Brooks, Andy Coulson and five others. 
   
   In recent weeks the jury at the Old Bailey in Central London has heard allegations that the tentacles of Murdoch’s newspaper reached right inside Buckingham Palace. When the home of Clive Goodman, the former royal correspondent for News of the World, was raided by police in August 2006, police say they discovered 15 royal phone directories, which listed the numbers of the entire royal family, staff and close friends. The jury have since been shown several timelines of admissions or ‘agreed facts’ between defense and prosecution that show the Sunday tabloid sourced a number of its royal stories from phone hacking. In 2006, the paper accused Prince Harry of cheating in exams at the Sandhurst military academy after a message on his private secretary’s phone was allegedly intercepted. 
   
   However, palace officials were not informed of this apparent security lapse about the royal directories until Goodman’s re-arrest in the light of the phone hacking scandal in 2011. The alleged breaches heard in court on Thursday were the most serious yet. 
   
   
   
   In a transcript of one of the messages, William was quoted as saying to Middleton: “Hi, baby. Um, sorry, I’ve just got back in off my night navigation exercise,” the jury were told. "I’ve been running around the woods of Aldershot chasing shadows and getting horribly lost, and I walked into some other regiment’s ambush, which was slightly embarrassing because I nearly got shot.” 
   
   The jury were then shown emails Clive Goodman sent to his editors at the News of the World explaining how William "got shot on a night exercise." Goodman's Blackadder columns in January 2006 are alleged to have relied on the exclusive revelations that William calls Kate “babykins” and a description of the military training accident. Prosecutor Andrew Edis alleged that the stories were linked to payments of around $5000 to 'Matey'--an alias for private investigator Mulcaire. 
   
   Earlier this month the court heard that Andy Coulson, who replaced Rebekah Brooks as editor of News of the World 2003 was warned by Goodman about the risks they were taking by acquiring the phone directories, let alone using them to hack phones. “These people will not be paid in anything other than cash because if they're discovered selling stuff to us they end up on criminal charges, as could we,” Goodman allegedly wrote to Coulson, in an email read in court. Coulson, who is alleged to have been conducting an affair with Rebekah Brooks at the time, later became Prime Minister David Cameron’s head of communications at Number Ten Downing Street. 
   
   In other evidence the prosecution claims that Rebekah Brooks, during her time as editor of the best-selling British daily paper, the Sun, approved over $60,000 of payments to a former Ministry of Defence employee, Bettina Jordan-Barber, who—the prosecution alleges—was the source of several stories about the royal princes as they attended the military training academy at Sandhurst. ||||| Story highlights Prosecutor reads transcripts of messages between Prince William, Kate Middleton 
   
   Evidence is revealed in phone-hacking trial of former News of the World editors 
   
   Several hundred attempts made to hack phones of UK princes' aides, court told earlier 
   
   The British tabloid News of the World hacked Kate Middleton's phone while she was dating Prince William, a prosecutor told a London court Thursday in a trial of the defunct newspaper's executives, according to the British Press Association. 
   
   In one voicemail message that William left Kate -- the transcript of which was read in court by the prosecutor -- the prince calls his future wife "Babykins" and says he was almost shot by blank rounds during a military training exercise, the PA reported. 
   
   The date of the message wasn't immediately clear, though the couple weren't yet married at the time, the PA reported. Middleton became the Duchess of Cambridge when she married William in April 2011. 
   
   The transcript, dug up during a police investigation into the newspaper's alleged hacking practices, was one of several messages between the couple that were read at London's Old Bailey court, the PA reported. 
   
   The revelation came at the trial of former News of the World editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson and the paper's former managing editor, Stuart Kuttner. All are accused of conspiring between October 2000 and August 2006 "to intercept communications in the course of their transmission, without lawful authority." They deny the charges. 
   
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   31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family Britain's Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge pose for a photo with their children, Princess Charlotte and Prince George in the French Alps on Thursday, March 3. Hide Caption 1 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family Britain's Prince William poses with Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, and their children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, during a family Christmas photo released on Friday, December 18. Hide Caption 2 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family Princess Charlotte plays with a stuffed dog in this photo taken by her mother in early November. Hide Caption 3 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family William and Catherine pose with their children at Charlotte's christening in July. Hide Caption 4 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family Princess Charlotte is seen with her big brother for the first time in a photo released by Kensington Palace in June. Hide Caption 5 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family William and Catherine present their newborn daughter as they leave a London hospital in May. Hide Caption 6 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family In March, William and Catherine visit a center dedicated to community learning in London. Hide Caption 7 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family The royal family celebrates Prince George's first birthday with a trip to the Natural History Museum in July 2014. Hide Caption 8 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family The royal family waves to a crowd before boarding a plance in Wellington, New Zealand, in April 2014. They went on a three-week tour of Australia and New Zealand. Hide Caption 9 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family The royal couple attends the Tusk Conservation Awards at the Royal Society in London in September 2013. Hide Caption 10 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family William and Catherine start an ultra marathon in Holyhead, Wales, in August 2013. It was Catherine's first public appearance since the birth of Prince George. Hide Caption 11 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family The couple are pictured with their newborn boy, Prince George, in 2013. The new parents released two family photographs taken by Michael Middleton, Catherine's father. Hide Caption 12 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family The Duke and Duchess and their newborn son depart St. Mary's Hospital in London in July 2013. Hide Caption 13 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family In June 2013, William, Catherine and Prince Harry arrive at Westminster Abbey for a celebration marking the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation. Hide Caption 14 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family In April 2013, Harry, Catherine and William make magic on the set used to depict Diagon Alley in the "Harry Potter" films. Hide Caption 15 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family The couple attends a St. Patrick's Day parade as they visit Aldershot, England, in March 2013. Hide Caption 16 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family In September 2012, the couple drank coconut milk from a tree that Queen Elizabeth II planted decades ago in the South Pacific nation of Tuvalu. Hide Caption 17 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family Catherine and William celebrate during cycling events at the Olympic Games in London in August 2012. Hide Caption 18 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family The Queen, William and Catherine stand on the balcony of Buckingham Palace during the finale of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations in June 2012. Hide Caption 19 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family As part of their charity work, the couple attended a "healthy living cookery session" in London in December 2011. Hide Caption 20 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family The newly married royal couple watches a rodeo demonstration at a government reception in Calgary, Alberta, in July 2011. Hide Caption 21 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family Catherine shovels soil during a tree-planting ceremony in Ottawa in July 2011. Hide Caption 22 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family You can feel the love as the happy couple attends a Snowbirds air show during Canada Day celebrations in July 2011. Hide Caption 23 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama meet with the royal couple at Buckingham Palace in May 2011. Hide Caption 24 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family The newlyweds walk hand in hand from Buckingham Palace the day after their wedding in April 2011. Hide Caption 25 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family After their wedding on April 29, 2011, the couple drove from Buckingham Palace to Clarence House in a vintage Aston Martin. Hide Caption 26 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family William and Catherine kiss on the balcony of Buckingham Palace after their wedding ceremony in London. Hide Caption 27 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family The pair returned to their alma mater in St. Andrews, Scotland, in February 2011. They launched a fundraising campaign for a new scholarship. Hide Caption 28 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family The couple poses for photographers to mark their engagement in November 2010. Catherine received the engagement ring that belonged to William's late mother, Diana. Hide Caption 29 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family The couple cheers on the English rugby team during the Six Nations Championship match in London in February 2007. Hide Caption 30 of 31 31 photos: Will and Kate's royal family The couple takes a photo after graduating from the University of St. Andrews in June 2005. They met at school and even shared a house with others while students. Hide Caption 31 of 31 
   
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   Glenn Mulcaire, a former private investigator for News International -- the then parent company of News of the World -- was convicted of phone hacking in 2006 and has already pleaded guilty to hacking charges in the current case. 
   
   Greg Miskiw, Neville Thurlbeck and James Weatherup have also pleaded guilty in the case. 
   
   Jurors were told that Ian Edmondson, who is also charged with conspiring to hack phones between October 2000 and August 2006, is "currently unfit" and will take no further part in the trial, the PA reported. He will be tried at a later date, the judge said. 
   
   Brooks, her husband, Charlie Brooks, and her former personal assistant Cheryl Carter also face a separate set of charges of conspiring to obstruct the police investigation into phone hacking. 
   
   Brooks is also accused of conspiring with others to commit misconduct in public office. Coulson faces a similar charge, the PA reported. 
   
   Among the allegations made in the trial previously: A police investigator testified that several hundred attempts were made to hack the cellphones of aides to princes Charles, William and Harry. 
   
   Hacking allegations against the News of the World prompted British Prime Minister David Cameron to set up an independent inquiry, led by Lord Justice Leveson, to make recommendations on journalistic ethics and examine the relationship of the media with the public, police and politicians.
target: – Prosecutors told a London court today that Rupert Murdoch's News of the World hacked the phones of Kate Middleton and Prince Harry, marking the first time the now-closed tabloid has been accused of hacking the phone of an actual member of the British royal family—as opposed to an aide. Voicemails on Middleton's phone were intercepted by the newspaper and heard by the court today, including one from 2006 in which Prince William calls her "baby" and another in which he calls her "babykins," the Daily Beast reports. In one of the messages, William tells Kate he was nearly shot by blanks while going through military training, CNN reports. The court also heard an intercepted voicemail of Prince Harry's, in which William spoke in falsetto, pretending to be Harry's then-girlfriend Chelsy Davy. In total, Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who has pleaded guilty to phone hacking in the case, recorded about eight messages, the prosecution says.