Prince Harry makes surprise appearance in London, as lawyer says royal was unfairly 'singled out' when stripped of UK security detail

Prince Harry was treated unfairly when he was stripped of his UK security detail, his lawyer told judges, as he sought to win back his government-funded protection.

The Duke of Sussex wants his British security detail restored and is challenging a lower court ruling that upheld the decision, with his attendance at the Court of Appeal on Tuesday morning (Tuesday evening AEST) an indication of the case's importance to him.

It's understood the royal arrived on UK soil on Sunday, just a few hours before his dad, King Charles, departed for a four-day state visit to Italy with wife Queen Camilla.

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It's not known if the father and son met in the short overlap they had.

Prince Harry arrived at court with a small security detail supplemented with court officers. He waved to cameras before disappearing into a private entrance.

Attorney Shaheed Fatima argued that a group that evaluated Harry's security needs failed to follow its own process and perform a risk management assessment.

"The appellant does not accept that bespoke means better," Fatima said.

"In fact, in his submission, it means that he has been singled out for different, unjustified and inferior treatment."

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A lawyer for the government said Harry's argument in the lower court was accurately found to have been based on an "inappropriate, formalist interpretation" of the government's security review that was misconceived.

"The appeal is fairly to be characterised in the same way," attorney James Eadie said.

"It involves a continued failure to see the wood for the trees, advancing propositions available only by reading small parts of the evidence, and now the judgment, out of context and ignoring the totality of the picture."

The hearing before three Court of Appeal justices is due to end on Wednesday and a written decision is expected later.

While the hearing was livestreamed, some was to be conducted behind closed doors to discuss sensitive security details.

Harry, 40, the younger son of King Charles, has bucked royal family convention by taking the government and tabloid press to court, where he has a mixed record.

But the duke rarely shows up to court, making only a few appearances in the past two years.

That included the trial of one of his phone hacking cases against the British tabloids when he was the first senior member of the royal family to enter the witness box in more than a century.

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The royal lost his government-funded protection in February 2020 after he stepped down from his role as a working member of the royal family and moved to the US.

A High Court judge ruled last year that a government panel's decision to provide "bespoke" security for Harry on an as-needed basis was not unlawful, irrational or unjustified.

Harry claimed he and his family are endangered when visiting his homeland because of hostility aimed at him and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, on social media and through relentless hounding by news media.

After being denied government-sponsored protection, Harry faced at least two serious security threats, his lawyer said in court papers.

Al-Qaida had published a document that said Harry's assassination would please Muslims, and he and his wife were involved in a dangerous pursuit by paparazzi in New York.

He lost a related court case in which he sought permission to privately pay for a police detail when in the UK but a judge denied that offer after a government lawyer argued officers shouldn't be used as "private bodyguards for the wealthy."

He also dropped a libel case against the publisher of the Daily Mail for an article that said he had tried to hide his efforts to continue receiving government-funded security.

But he won a significant victory at trial in 2023 against the publisher of the Daily Mirror when a judge found that phone hacking at the tabloid was "widespread and habitual".

He claimed a "monumental" victory in January when Rupert Murdoch's UK tabloids made an unprecedented apology for intruding in his life for years, and agreed to pay substantial damages to settle his privacy invasion lawsuit.

He has a similar case pending against the publisher of the Mail.

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