A man who shouted to Prince Harry from outside the High Court with an offer of help has been identified as former East 17 frontman Brian Harvey.
The BBC broadcast live outside the court on Wednesday, where the prince is making his case around hacking against the Mirror’s publishers.
Harvey, 48, was spotted in the background shouting up at the High Court.
Wearing a ‘BHTV’ (Brian Harvey TV) tracksuit, and carrying an upsized printout of an email, Harvey was heard yelling “I will help you,” in a possible reference to the singer’s own phone hacking claim against News Group Newspapers.
A BBC News broadcaster said: “I do apologise to our viewers, this is just the nature of live television. There are a lot of press here and there are people trying to take advantage of that.”
Despite the apology, it was not easy to distinguish whether Harvey had used any profanity.
East 17, who are named after the post code of Walthamstow - where they formed, collected a number one single and album in the 1990s, rivalling Take That as the UK’s biggest boy band. Harvey left the group in 1997 after comments in an interview were said to glorify ecstasy, although he soon rejoined before the group split in 1999.
Since then, the band has been through various reformations and incarnations while Harvey has faced struggles in his personal life. In 2005, he was reportedly run over by his own Mercedes and dropped out of a celebrity version of Big Brother for family reasons.
In 2014, he appeared outside Downing Street, demanding to see then-prime minister David Cameron - claiming he had files showing money owed to him. He was denied entry. “You’ll all be dancing to my number one single at Christmas,” a witness said Harvey shouted - in reference to Stay Another Day, their 1994 chart topper.
Prince Harry concluded his evidence at around 2.30pm and said the intrusion from the media has been “a lot”. The hearing is set to continue.
