Second royal butler trial ends in collapse
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Harold Brown, the second royal butler accused of stealing from Diana, Princess of Wales, was cleared at the Old Bailey yesterday after the Queen's intervention in the Paul Burrell trial undermined the case against him.
After further damaging disclosures from a second court collapse in a month, Sir Michael Peat, Prince Charles' private secretary, announced yesterday that he had widened the scope of his palace cash-for-gifts investigation. The Metropolitan Police also sought to pre-empt criticism of its £2m investigations into alleged royal thefts by announcing an internal inquiry after Mr Brown, 51, was acquitted of all charges.
Sir Michael said he would look into a new allegation that the heir to the throne scribbled a note on the back of an old envelope offering staff a gold wedding ring. Mr Brown's legal team said they would have introduced the evidence if the trial had gone ahead to rebut palace claims that staff were given only "champagne and polo prizes" in order to highlight the scale of the trade in royal gifts. A spokeswoman for Prince Charles said she knew nothing of the note.
Mr Brown said he was "delighted" after charges of stealing jewellery and a jewel-encrusted Arab dhow were dropped.