Prince George harassment: Former protection officer of Princess Diana blasts police for inefficiency

Ken Wharfe, a former Scotland Yard officer has blamed police for failing to deal with the media in relation to the recent incidents of Prince George being harassed by the paparazzi.

The former officer had been in charge of the security of Princess Diana and her sons Prince William and Prince Harry, Guardian reported. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Media show on Wednesday, he said: “It seems to me from a policing point of view [that] there is a lack of communication to deal with the problem at source. What has happened is that it would appear to me that Scotland Yard’s finest have failed to communicate and deal with this matter at source.”

Wharfe’s comments have come in the wake of Kensington Palace issuing an appeal to the world media not to publish unauthorised images of the two-year-old Prince George.

The palace said that the photographers are employing dangerous techniques to take pictures of the little royal. Some paparazzi had gone to “extreme lengths” to take pictures and “a line has been crossed”, the palace said.

The strongly worded letter was written by Jason Knauf, the communication secretary of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. He warned that photographers hid in car boots and used other children as bait.

The appeal added that there’re should be an end to publishing unauthorised pictures of children. It said that a handful of media organisations mostly from Germany, France, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S., had published pictures of George in “unacceptable circumstances.”

However, majority of the UK publications had refused to publish the pictures. Wharfe recalled the time when William was five and Harry was three, the paparazzi used to wait hiding in the tress at the back of the garden in Kensington Palace. They had to be kicked out, even when he took both the brothers from the side door.

He said that nothing seemed to have changed from that time. And the approach by Knauf to deal with the photographers might have been “over the top” but hints at police failure. The palace wants a public discussion to address the issue of using unauthorised pictures of children in publications, which will help them understand their responsibilities.

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