Palace 'rape' case not to be reopened, say police

The Metropolitan Police denied claims yesterday that it has reopened an investigation into an alleged male rape by an aide of the Prince of Wales on a fellow member of the Royal Household.

The allegation resurfaced in the wake of the collapse of the Paul Burrell trial and prompted further questions about the handling of the case by St James's Palace.

Officials admitted that the claim was not reported to the police when it first came to light in 1996. Instead, it carried out a discreet internal investigation. That inquiry has been criticised by lawyers brought in by Prince Charles to examine it.

Officials for the Prince do not deny reports that the alleged victim left royal service with a pay-off of at least £30,000, but a spokeswoman said it was "not unusual for the Prince of Wales to make termination payments to employees".

The allegations received a new airing after it was revealed at Mr Burrell's trial that Diana had made a secret tape recording of the alleged victim and had kept the cassette in a box at the height of her rift with her former husband and other senior members of the Royal Family.

It has since been revealed that the contents of the box had gone missing and police were believed to be searching for the highly sensitive material when they raided Mr Burrell's house at the start of the theft investigation against him.

St James's Palace defended its actions, saying there was a seven-year gap between the claimed incident in 1989 and the accusation. A spokeswoman added that the alleged victim did not want to pursue the matter and no evidence emerged of an attack from the internal inquiry.

The subject of the complaint completely denied any wrongdoing and it was backed up "with contemporary evidence", a spokeswoman for the Prince said. St James's Palace refused yesterday to give any further details of that evidence. The spokeswoman added: "It has been suggested that the same allegation was secretly recorded in 1996. At no stage have the police produced any such tape or any such witnesses who have heard the tape, and we have no evidence of the existence of any such tape."

Scotland Yard was finally called in last year and officers carried out their own inquiry, but the Crown Prosecution Service recommended in February that no further action should be taken. Scotland Yard confirmed yesterday that the case was now in effect closed.

Mr Burrell said the man had been distraught and heading for a breakdown, and had turned to Diana for help. She sat by his hospital bedside at the Priory clinic where he was being treated and secretly taped what he told her, keeping the evidence hidden in an ornate box that was to become the most intriguing aspect of the butler's trial.

The box held some of Diana's most sensitive belongings, including a signet ring from her former lover, Major James Hewitt, and scathing letters from the Queen Mother and Prince Philip. Diana's sister, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, said she had handed the contents of the box over to the butler after discovering them after the Princess's death .

In the Daily Mirror yesterday, Mr Burrell was cryptic. "I am the keeper of secrets," he said. "But those secrets are in my head. The whereabouts of the contents of that box are a mystery to me also. The contents were the business of Diana only.

"I have never heard the tape. I don't know of the exact contents nor do I know of its whereabouts. I know the names but I would never talk about it."

Since the contents of the box have vanished, speculation has centred on the whereabouts of the tape and even, according to the Prince of Wales's office, over whether it actually existed.

It is claimed the Palace feared that the full story would emerge when Mr Burrell took the stand at his trial and heap further embarrassment upon the Royal Family. However, the Queen's intervention and the collapse of his trial ensured that any allegations were not publicly aired at that time.

But the Spencer family, who are critical of the way that the row about the tape has been handled, do believe it exists. "The family were aware of its existence for a number of years," a source said.

Meanwhile, Earl Spencer insisted there had been no clash with the Royals over the protocol at Diana's funeral. In his first public statement since Mr Burrell sold his story, the Earl described claims that a rift with the Royal Family prompted him to remove the royal standard from Diana's coffin moments before it was buried and replace it with a Spencer flag as "yet more hurtful lies".

He added: "The Queen's standard was removed as part of the ceremony by her own officer in a dignified and pre-agreed manner."

Mr Burrell said the standard had been removed in an "inappropriate and disrespectful" manner. He added: "It seemed it had more to do with his Spencer versus Windsor war than doing what Diana would have wanted."