The former king of Spain could face trial in London over allegations he spied on and harassed his ex-mistress and her children, after he lost a bid for immunity on Thursday.

Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, also known as Corinna Larsen, is seeking damages from Juan Carlos over claims he caused her “great mental pain” and distress.

The former monarch, 84, allegedly launched a campaign of “harassment” after failing to win back his lover when their five-year relationship ended in 2009.

Juan Carlos has denied the claims and launched a bid for sovereign immunity to stop the case against him going ahead.

He ruled from 1975, when the Franco dictatorship came to an end, until his abdication in 2014 when he was succeeded by his son, King Felipe VI.

At a High Court hearing in London last December, lawyers argued Juan Carlos was “entitled to immunity from the jurisdiction of the English courts in his capacity as a senior member of the Spanish royal family”.

Despite his abdication, the former king remained a “sovereign” and was entitled to personal immunity under the State Immunity Act (1978), his legal team said.

But on Thursday, Mr Justice Nicklin rejected the immunity claim – meaning the case can proceed.

“There is only one King of Spain and head of state of Spain and, since June 19 2014, that has been his son, King Felipe VI,” the judge said.

“Whatever his special constitutional position following abdication, (Juan Carlos) is neither the sovereign nor the head of state of Spain.”

The decision means Juan Carlos, who moved to the United Arab Emirates in 2020, “cannot hide behind position, power, or privilege to avoid this claim” and “will now be answerable to an English court for his actions”, said Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn’s lawyer, Robin Rathmell.

“This is the first step on the road to justice; the appalling facts of this case will finally be brought before the court,” Mr Rathmell added.

Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn claims Juan Carlos asked her to marry him before their split.

They remained close friends for a period after, with the former king showering her with “artwork, jewellery and financial gifts amounting to €65m (then £52.5m) in June 2012, it is claimed.

But a month earlier, the Danish businesswoman alleges the head of the Spanish National Intelligence Agency and an “agent or associate” of the former king, General Sanz Roldan, was “threatening” towards her and her children at a meeting in the Connaught Hotel in London on 5 May 2012.

She says the meeting was timed to coincide with break-ins at her apartments in Monaco and Villars, Switzerland – where a book about the death of the Princess of Wales entitled “Princess Diana: The Hidden Evidence, How MI6 and the CIA were involved in the death of Princess Diana”, was left on a coffee table.

Papers in the flat were also “disturbed”, it is alleged.

On the same evening, Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn says she received a phone call from “an unknown person” who said in Spanish: “There are many tunnels between Monaco and Nice.”

When it became clear the relationship could not be rekindled, Juan Carlos allegedly “demanded the return of gifts”.

He is then accused of carrying out or arranging “a series of further acts of covert and overt surveillance, causing distress and anxiety”.

This included drilling a hole into her bedroom window at her Shropshire home as she slept on 21 June 2017, written submissions to the court suggest.

Gunshots are also said to have been fired at her front gate on 14 April 2020, damaging CCTV cameras.

The alleged incidents were reported to the police, the court heard.

Twice-married Ms zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, a resident of Monaco, is seeking “personal injury damages” for the “great mental pain, alarm, anxiety, distress, loss of wellbeing, humiliation and moral stigma” she claims she endured.

Sir Daniel Bethlehem QC, for the former king, said in written arguments that he refuted the allegations made against him in “the strongest of terms”.

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