A STREAM of ‘gossip and tittle-tattle’ about Prince William and Harry’s time at Sandhurst was leaked to The Sun by a ‘greedy’ East Lancashire public official, a court heard.

Former Sandhurst colour sergeant John Hardy, 44, from Oswaldtwistle, is on trial at the Old Bailey, in London, charged with misconduct in a public office over the sale of stories about the Royal Military Academy.

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Between February 2006 and October 2008, Hardy allegedly provided information on the Princes and others to The Sun’s royal correspondent Duncan Larcombe on 34 occasions and was paid more than £23,700 by the newspaper.

His wife Claire, 41, is accused of aiding and abetting him in the offence, collecting some payments for her husband and channelling money through her bank.

The couple are in the dock alongside five other defendants,The Sun’s chief reporter John Kay, executive editor Fergus Shanahan, deputy editor Geoffrey Webster and Larcombe.

Shanahan and Webster are accused of authorising payments, sometimes in consultation with the editor Rebekah Brooks.

And Ministry of Defence official Bettina Jordan-Barber also allegedly made £100,000 by selling stories to Kay between 2004 and 2012, the court heard.

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.”

He went on: “The value placed on the information or material provided by these public officials, be they MoD official or soldier, was newsworthiness.

“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’.

“The other recurring theme is personal tragedy in the battlegrounds of Helmand province and Iraq. The public interest in such stories and involving such personal and private matters was often, you may conclude, marginal or non-existent.

“There are some notable exceptions, but very often the only interest was that they were simply prurient, morbid or banal.”

Mr Parroy said Kay maintained a ‘close and mutually beneficial’ relationship with Jordan-Barber over a period of eight years.

In emails to then editor Rebekah Brooks, the chief reporter referred to her as his ‘number one military contact’, while Jordan-Barber called him ‘Godfather J’ in her mobile phone address book, the court heard.

She not only held a senior position compiling news briefings for the MoD but her husband was an instructor at Sandhurst around the time William and Harry were officer cadets, the court heard.

The prosecutor told the six men and six women of the jury that the case was not an attack on the freedom of the press but that no organisation was ‘above the law’ and agreeing to pay public officials without ‘lawful excuse’ was a crime.

Kay, Shanahan and Webster are jointly charged with conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office between January 1, 2004 and January 31, 2012 by plotting with Jordan-Barber.

Webster also faces a second count of conspiracy to commit misconduct with a serving officer in the armed forces between November 3 and 6, 2010 and November 6 2010.

Larcombe is charged with aiding, abetting, counselling and procuring John Hardy’s offence.

The trial is being heard before Mr Justice Saunders and is expected to last for three months.