LONDON: Police may have to upgrade Prince Harry’s security after his candid admission that he has killed enemy fighters in Afghanistan, it emerged.
Scotland Yard chiefs are reviewing their protection for the 28-year-old Apache attack helicopter pilot who said soldiers sometimes had to ‘take a life to save a life’.
Last night former senior officers expressed surprise at his comments.
Dai Davies, former head of the Met’s Royalty Protection Squad, said: ‘Purely from a protection point of view, I think it was highly unadvisable for Prince Harry to draw attention to himself.
‘It may be the reality that he killed insurgents, but saying this publicly just increases the likelihood of some lunatic trying to take revenge on him.
‘It does not seem to have occurred to this young man that he has responsibility not only to himself, but also those who guard him.
‘If you look at other senior royals, they never discussed their deployments. Prince Andrew never did. His father never did and nor did his uncles. None of them discussed whether they did or didn’t kill while in the military.’ He added: ‘Had I still been in charge of Royalty Protection, I would certainly now be reviewing and enhancing Prince Harry’s security.’
Another former senior officer, Glen Smyth, ex-chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said: ‘I think it would have been better for Prince Harry to have simply said he had been deployed in an operational capacity, and to have left it at that.
‘What he has said has undoubtedly increased his value as a terrorist target.’ Scotland Yard refused to discuss the review of Harry’s protection. It said: ‘We are not prepared to discuss matters of security.’
