No new evidence in former valet's story of rape, say police
Scotland Yard attach little importance to ex-royal servant's accusations despite lengthy exposé in a tabloid newspaper
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Your support makes all the difference.New claims of the rape of a Royal valet by a close aide to the Prince of Wales are unlikely to lead to the case being reopened, it was being stressed last night
Scotland Yard sources made it clear the claims made by former valet, George Smith, 42, in the Mail on Sunday – in which he waived his legal right to anonymity – add nothing new to the facts known when the matter was first investigated. The Crown Prosecution Service advised against prosecution because of Mr Smith's mental health.
Last night, the Yard said: "We cannot add anything to what we have said before on this matter. The case was investigated and the CPS advised against the prosecution. We are not studying the claims made in the Mail on Sunday.'' A spokeswoman for the Prince of Wales said: "There has been a full police investigation and they found no evidence of any kind. If Mr Smith has some new evidence relating to the case, he should provide it immediately."
The statement issued last night by Kingsley Napley, the solicitors acting on behalf of the unamed aide, detailed a number of discrepancies between Mr Smith's account in the newspaper and the statement he made to police last year. It also accuses Mr Smith of being an alcoholic.
The ex-valet, who served in the Welsh Guards in the Falklands and had been aboard the bombed warship Sir Galahad, alleged the man raped him after a drunken Sunday lunch in 1989. He also claimed the man later tried to assault him six years later while they were accompanying the Prince of Wales on a tour to Cairo.
A statement on behalf of the aide to the Prince of Wales said that Mr Smith had claimed the first rape took place while he was asleep but that the statement to the police had said he was fully conscious and that he fought with his attacker.
It also said that the trip to Egypt, when the second allegation of rape is said to have occured, did not take place.
The rape allegations emerged in the aftermath of the collapse of the trial of Paul Burrell when it was claimed that a tape of Mr Smith's accusations made by Diana, Princess of Wales, was among items kept by her in a monogrammed box, nicknamed by some as the "Crown Jewels". The box was also said to contain the signet ring of her former lover, James Hewitt.
The box was opened by the Princess's family after her death but subsequently disappeared. It is believed a principal reason for the initial visit by Scotland Yard to the Cheshire home of Mr Burrell early in 2001, where they found large amounts of his former employers' possessions, was to search for the box and the tape that the Spencer family believed was among them.
Mr Smith said that after the second incident and also as a consequence of his Falklands experiences, he had a breakdown, his wife left him and he suffered drink problems, which led to his being treated at a clinic, provided by the health insurance of his job.
He described the attacks to the Princess, he claimed, when she arrived at the clinic and asked him if he wanted to talk about his problems, during which she taped him covertly. She later invited him to her home and taped him again with his permission because the original tape did not work.
He does not know why she first chose to question and tape him, because he had previously spoken about the allegations. He assumed it was because she knew he was troubled – and that she was aware of tensions between him and his alleged attacker, whom, he said, she resented.
Mr Smith told the newspaper: "The Prince had covered it up when it all happened.|He would not have wanted it coming out at the Old Bailey.''
But he claimed that the Princess of Wales had repeatedly urged him to spill the beans about the allegations.
Mr Smith later left royal employment with a £38,000 pay-off and returned to his native South Wales. He has since suffered extensive mental health problems.
According to some reports, the Royal household conducted an internal inquiry into the claims, involving Fiona Shackleton, Prince Charles's solicitor but the police were not told because of Mr Smith's reluctance to pursue the matter.
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