LONDON (AFP)
Photographs of Prince Harry nude in a Las Vegas hotel room were
not as they appeared, Britain's top police officer said on
Tuesday.
The prince made headlines around the world when the images of him
frolicking nude with an unidentified naked woman in a VIP hotel
room were published on a US gossip website in August.
Metropolitan Police commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe told MPs on
Tuesday that Scotland Yard is reviewing the incident.
He was testifying before the Commons Home Affairs Select
Committee when he was asked about the role of Harry's protection
officers during the Vegas party.
"There was nothing inappropriate and what appeared in photographs
to be wrong was not as appeared," Hogan-Howe said.
"Our role is to maintain the security of our protected
individual. They have to lead a normal life and we have to strike
a balance between intrusion into their life and keeping them
safe.
"There is a golden line that cannot be crossed, which is getting
involved in the social lives of the principals."
The Press Complaints Commission has said it would be
"inappropriate" to open an investigation into the publication of
the images by the Sun newspaper because neither Harry nor his
representatives has made a complaint.
The prince has since been deployed for a second tour of duty in
Afghanistan, where he is set to serve four months as an Apache
helicopter pilot at Camp Bastion in Helmand Province.
