Sir Elton calls press intrusion into his baby son 'truly sickening'

Sir Elton John has said it was "truly sickening" to learn details of how the Daily Mail breached his family's privacy in relation to the birth of his son, the High Court has heard.

In a witness statement, Sir Elton described the press intrusions - which also included article's about his own health - as "outside even the most basic standards of human decency".

The musician and his husband David Furnish are among seven people, including Prince Harry, Elizabeth Hurley and Baroness Doreen Lawrence, suing the publisher of the newspaper and the Mail on Sunday for breaches of privacy.

Their publisher, Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), denies all allegations of unlawful information gathering.

The star gave evidence in person on Friday, appearing at the High Court via a video link in a green suit, blue shirt and tie.

He told the court the legal case brought by him and Furnish "contains the most horrendous things in the world that you can ever suffer from a privacy point of view".

The couple's legal claim relates to 10 articles published between 2000 and 2015.

In his statement, Sir Elton said he felt "passionately" about "how wrong it is that such gross invasions could have been inflicted upon us and our family and friends without us ever knowing".

"I have found The Mail's deliberate invasion into my medical health and medical details surrounding the birth of our son Zachary abhorrent and outside even the most basic standards of human decency," he wrote in his statement.

Sir Elton said that while he had devoted his life to music, "this does not mean deeply personal things which I have a right to deal with in private are fair game".

He described what he called the "exploitation of love, connection, trust and bonds to find out information shared in confidence".

While the "invisibility of such evil acts" meant he and Furnish were unable to detect them, Sir Elton said.

Addressing the High Court, he said he and Furnish took legal action against ANL because they were "outraged".

Asked by Catrin Evans KC, representing ANL, if it was true that the couple did not complain at the time the stories were published, Sir Elton said "I can't remember".

He added: "We did not know the extent of the seriousness of what had gone on. When we knew the seriousness of what had gone on, we took action, because we were outraged."

Evans told the court that an article with the headline "Sick Elton cancels more tour dates" in November 2009 followed a statement on his website.

In response, Sir Elton said: "That may be the case but we didn't disclose in the statement on the website my illness or why I was cancelling the tour."

He added that journalists were "presuming I had something I didn't have", but said "I had something far more serious."

On Thursday, Furnish told the court that the couple had been "profoundly affected" by not knowing how many times they were targeted by the Daily Mail.

Furnish said one story, published in December 2010, included the publication of their son's birth certificate before they had received it.

The court case continues.