Nude Harry photos: no complaint

Prince Harry's aides have announced they will not be making a formal complaint to the newspaper watchdog about the Sun's publication of nude photos of him.

Harry, an Apache helicopter co-pilot gunner, is on deployment in Afghanistan and pursuing a complaint with the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) would be a distraction, said St James's Palace.

The Sun was the only British newspaper to defy a PCC advisory note not to publish the photos of Harry frolicking in the nude with an unnamed woman in Las Vegas.

The PCC had warned that publication could breach the editor's code of practice on privacy grounds.

A St James's Palace spokesman said: "Having considered the matter now for a number of weeks, we have decided not to pursue a complaint with the PCC on behalf of Prince Harry in respect of the photos of the Prince taken in Las Vegas. We informed the PCC yesterday (Thursday).

"We remain of the opinion that a hotel room is a private space where its occupants would have a reasonable expectation of privacy.

"Prince Harry is currently focused entirely on his deployment in Afghanistan, so to pursue a complaint relating to his private life would not be appropriate at this time and would prove to be a distraction. We have concluded that it would not be prudent to pursue the matter further, and we will have no further comment to make about the matter."

Images of Harry naked with a nude woman led to global headlines after they emerged on a celebrity gossip website last month. He had been photographed while on a short break in Las Vegas just a few weeks before he was sent back to Afghanistan.

The Sun's front-page image showed Harry holding his genitals and another inside showed him with his bottom exposed while apparently playing strip billiards with an unknown blonde.

The tabloid defended its decision in an editorial published along the pictures which said: "It is absurd that in the internet age newspapers like The Sun could be stopped from publishing stories and pictures already seen by millions on the free-for-all that is the web."