BRITISH newspapers were warned against publishing naked images of Prince Harry after he was photographed "letting off steam" on holiday in Las Vegas.
The Press Complaints Commission said publication of the images, which show the prince and a woman both naked, constitutes a breach of privacy codes.
The images, which have already been widely published on the internet, were apparently taken on a camera phone as he was partying in a Las Vegas hotel suite.
He had been enjoying an extended weekend break before embarking on the next phase of his military career.
They are believed to be the first intimate images published of a senior member of the Royal Family.
However, there is no suggestion anything other than horseplay is going on between the royal and the unnamed woman.
In the first photograph, the 27-year-old is shown wearing just a necklace and a wristband with his hands around his genitals as a seemingly topless woman stands close behind him.
The nude prince is shown in another picture shielding himself behind an unknown woman who is also naked, with his bottom facing the camera.
US website TMZ, which published the images, claimed they were taken last Friday.
The website said that the pictures appeared after the prince and his entourage met some women in a hotel bar and invited them up to the royal's suite.
The group played a stripping game and someone in the party is thought to have captured the image of the naked prince on a camera phone.
A source said the pictures had been taken on Harry's personal break from work as an Army officer and helicopter pilot.
The source added: "He's been in LA on a private holiday over the weekend. He's been letting off steam before the next phase of his military career."
The pictures of a naked royal come at the end of his eventful long weekend in Los Angeles and Las Vegas that was well documented in the UK media.
Harry was filmed wearing a hat, sunglasses and colourful swimming shorts, socialising at a hotel pool party at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Singer Jennifer Lopez is also thought to have met the royal.
Prince Harry even challenged Olympic gold medal winning swimmer Ryan Lochtie to a race across a pool, but lost.
He is now believed to be on his way home to the UK.
A number of the prince's charities refused to comment, as did the Ministry of Defence.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article