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Prince Harry lost a legal challenge on Tuesday as he sought to pay for police protection in England, days after he and his wife, Meghan, were caught in a confrontation with a photographer in New York City.
In one of two cases involving the prince’s security, the High Court in London rejected Harry’s request for a judicial review of the Home Office’s decision to refuse an application to pay for personal protection from the Metropolitan Police when he and his family visited the UK.
Lawyers for the Home Office argued that it was inappropriate for police officers to be hired as private security guards.
In the United States, Harry and Meghan are protected by bodyguards who are licensed to carry weapons. But traveling in the UK is a particular challenge as private security guards are not allowed to carry guns.
A legal representative for Harry, also known as the Duke of Sussex, said he and his family needed increased protection while visiting the UK, and the prince was willing to pay for it out of his own pocket.
Harry lost automatic police protection when he and Meghan stepped down as senior royals in 2020. He also challenged the Home Office’s refusal to provide taxpayer-funded protection – a claim that has yet to be decided.
The decision to pay for protection, which cannot be appealed, is a setback for Harry as his security has come under scrutiny.
Last week, he and Meghan, along with Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, were mobbed by photographers after leaving an awards ceremony in Midtown Manhattan. What happened after that is the subject of wildly conflicting accounts.
A spokeswoman for the couple described a “car chase that came close to disaster at the hands of a very aggressive paparazzi.” But the taxi driver who was transporting the three briefly said that no car was being chased and that there was no reason for his passengers to be afraid, although he admitted that they looked shocked.
A spokesperson for the New York Police Department said the photographers posed a challenge, but added that the three made it to their destination on the Upper East Side with “no reports of collisions, summonses, injuries, or arrests.”
At issue in the case in London is whether the Home Office – through the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures, known by the acronym Ravec – has the right to refuse Harry’s request to pay security, because the police can be paid. to patrol private events like football games.
“In my view, the short answer to this is that Ravec did not say that it would be contrary to the public interest to allow the wealthy to pay for police services,” said the judge, Martin Chamberlain, in a 10-page writing. rule. “The only reason is for the protective services that are under their authority.”
In addition to the security case, Harry is involved in three lawsuits against London tabloid publishers – The Mirror, The Daily Mail, and The Sun – over allegations of mobile phone hacking and other invasions of privacy.
An awkward encounter with a photographer in New York has catapulted Harry and Meghan into UK headlines, just weeks after the prince made a quick and quiet appearance at the coronation of his father, King Charles III.
Some security experts say Harry faces a heightened threat because he claims, in his memoir, “Spare,” that he killed 25 Taliban fighters during two combat tours as a helicopter pilot in Afghanistan.
As a working royal, the prince said he never traveled without three armed bodyguards. During negotiations with royal officials about his new status, Harry wrote in his memoirs, he asked to be left with bodyguards, even though he lost all other royal perks.
“I offer to pay the security costs from my own pocket,” he wrote. “I’m not sure how, but I’ll find a way.”
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