Royal protection officers guarding Prince Harry cannot intrude into his social life, Britain's most senior policeman said today.

Metropolitan Police commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe told MPs that police protecting high profile individuals cannot cross "the golden line" by getting involved in their personal life.

He was questioned by Commons Home Affairs Select Committee chairman Keith Vaz about the naked photographs of Prince Harry in a hotel room in Las Vegas.

prince harry

Scandal: Prince Harry's naked photos led to unwanted attention - but the Met said police should not get involved 'in the social lives of the principals'


Mr Hogan-Howe said: "We're already in the process of reviewing that particular incident. 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."

He added: "There was nothing inappropriate and what appeared in photographs to be wrong was not as appeared."

Headlines were generated around the world when pictures of Harry frolicking in the nude with an unnamed naked woman during a Las Vegas holiday emerged on a celebrity gossip website last month.

One shot showed Harry holding his genitals and another featured him with his bottom exposed.

Only the Sun newspaper defied a request to UK newspapers, made by St James's Palace via the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), not to publish the pictures.

The watchdog has since said that it would be "inappropriate" to open an investigation into the publication of the shots, because Harry's representatives had not made a complaint.

Harry recovered from the incident with an appearance at the Paralympics, and is now in Afghanistan on active duty.

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  • October 1991 at the World Cup in Wales

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  • March 1994 on a ski trip to Austria

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  • August 1995 at the V-J Day Celebrations with Diana

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  • September 1995 at Eton College

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  • January 1996 in Switzerland

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  • November 1997 in South Africa

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  • November 1997 at a Spice Girls Concert in South Africa

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  • March 1998 on a visit to Vancouver

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  • March 2002 in Switzerland

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  • September 2002 at the English Premier League Soccer Club West Ham United

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  • September 2003 at the Sydney's Taronga Zoo

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  • July 2004 at the St. Jame's Palace Polo Day Charity Match in Tetbury, England

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  • September 2004 playing rugby in Walsall, England

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  • March 2005 at Prince Charles and Camilla's Wedding in Windsor, England

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  • January 2008 in Afghanistan

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  • May 2009 at a Children's School Dance in Harlem, New York

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  • May 2010 with girlfriend Chelsy Davy at a graduation ceremony in Middle Wallop, England

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  • June 2010 in combat simulation at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York

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  • June 2010 in the remote village of Semongkong, Lesotho

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  • July 2010 at the Canine Partners Organization in Midhurst, United Kingdom

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  • May 2011 in training for an expedition on an Island near the Norwegian mainland and the North Pole

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