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.
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.
