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STORY: Prince Harry launched a fierce attack on what he called the "vile" press as he gave evidence against a tabloid publisher on Tuesday.

It's the first time a senior British royal has been in the witness box since the 1890s.

He blamed tabloids for destroying his adolescence, as he gave evidence against tabloid publisher Mirror Group Newspapers, or MGN.

Harry and 100 others accuse the publisher of the Daily Mirror of widespread phone-hacking and unlawful information gathering between 1991 and 2011.

The prince faces hours of cross-examination from MGN's lawyer Andrew Green, over 33 newspaper articles whose details he says were obtained unlawfully.

Green began by personally apologizing to Harry on MGN's behalf over one instance in which it admitted unlawful information gathering.

In his written witness statement, Harry denounced the treatment he'd experienced at the hands of the press, saying he had been labeled a "playboy prince" and a "failure".

He said the press would try to destroy his relationships with girlfriends, blaming them for causing his circle of friends to shrink, and leading to bouts of depression and paranoia.

In another section of the statement he said: "How much more blood will stain their typing fingers before someone can put a stop to this madness?"

Asked by Green if he was suggesting by this that MGN journalists who wrote the articles at the center of his lawsuit had blood on their hands, Harry replied:

"Some of the editors and journalists that are responsible for causing a lot of pain, upset and in some cases - perhaps inadvertently - death."

Harry said thousands if not millions of stories had been written about him, as Green pressed him on whether he had read the Mirror Group articles in question at the time they were published.

The seven-week MGN trial began last month.

About 20 members of the public queued to gain access to one of around a dozen seats available to the public inside the courtroom.

MGN has previously admitted its titles were involved in phone-hacking, settling more than 600 claims, but Green has said there was no evidence that Harry had ever been a victim.