Hacking phones of royal staff led to story on Prince Harry essay, court told

Prince Harry, pictured here at the start of his training at the Sandhurst military academy. Photograph: Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

Hacking the phones of royal staff led the News of the World to run a story that Prince Harry had broken the rules at Sandhurst by asking an aide for help with an essay, the jury in the phone-hacking trial has been told.

Clive Goodman, the former News of the World royal editor, told the paper's then-editor, Andy Coulson, that Harry had asked his private secretary Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, a former soldier, for help on an essay about the Iranian embassy siege while studying at the military training academy.

Andrew Edis QC, leading the prosecution, said Lowther-Pinkerton's voicemail messages had been hacked by Glenn Mulcaire a private investigator working for the now defunct paper. One message was from Harry asking the aide if he "had any information at all" about the 1980 siege, "because I need to write an essay quite quickly on that but I need some extra info. Please please email it to me or text me".

The court heard that Goodman was seeking a response from Clarence House on the allegations, but did not want to be "too precise" and mention the embassy siege because it might might expose their source.

When Clarence House told them it was not against the rules for cadets to seek advice on websites and books, Goodman and Coulson were in email exchange on December 5 2005.

Edis read aloud the emails in court: "What's happening on your story?"

Goodman replied: "Just finished the calls. Need to go through the tapes … as we know that's not exactly what he asked for but I couldn't press forward on that without exposing the source. As we know Harry wasn't only asking for websites. He was asking for information which is a different thing altogether."

Edis said: "It means that if they say that what he was asking about was information about the Iranian embassy siege, everyone would know that they hacked his voicemail."

Other royal stories obtained through hacking included one about Prince William being shot during a night exercise at Aldershot, Edis said.

On another occasion, in April 2006, Coulson emailed Goodman about a story concerning Harry and a woman, asking: "How do we know Harry true?"

Goodman replied that it was from "the same source we had on a retainer". The email read: "We absolutely know it to be true, but I have to blag a confession out of Paddy [Harverson, Clarence House PR] tomorrow. That might not be too difficult because I know from the info that his worst nightmare is that this woman is so upset she'll start making a fuss."

It continued: "We can't get to her ourselves because there's no full name, no address … but Paddy doesn't know that and will hopefully walk straight into the snare."

On another occasion, Goodman emailed news editor Ian Edmondson that a story about William had come "from William himself". When asked to explain, Goodman wrote back: "Not on email."

Edis said Goodman and Coulson "knew what was going on. These are really quite explicit emails. Although they are not as explicit as they might be". They were being "careful and guarded", he told the jury.

"They are being as careful as they can be but the truth, I'm afraid, is still there to be seen despite that. That's what we suggest."