This is a Saturday March 10, 2012 file photo of Britain’s Prince Harry, smiles after playing rugby at Flamengo’s beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Photographs of a naked Prince Harry in a Las Vegas hotel room have popped up online. A celebrity gossip site published two pictures of the 27-year-old royal cavorting with what they called a mystery woman in a VIP suite. Prince Harry’s office confirmed Wednesday Aug. 22. 2012 that the photos were of the prince but declined to make any further comment.LONDON – They were embarrassing, silly, and raunchy. But were they a security breach?
A day after nude photographs of Prince Harry ricocheted across the Internet, security experts were wondering whether the Scotland Yard officers assigned to keep the 27-year-old royal safe from harm might have done a better job of keeping him out of trouble.
“The Yard is going to get some flack over this, and rightly so,” said Ken Wharfe, a former bodyguard to Princess Diana and her sons William and Harry.
Security costs for the royal family aren’t made public, but security experts estimate that British taxpayers spend between 30 million and 100 million pounds ($48 million and $159 million) a year keeping the royals safe.
Dai Davies, a former head of the force’s royal protection branch, said that at that price, the public had a right to expect Harry’s bodyguards to keep a close eye on the prince – and for the prince himself not to take any unnecessary risks.