Prince Harry on way home to face storm over naked photos

Two pictures, including one of the prince and a woman in which they are both naked, were apparently taken on a camera phone as he was partying in a Las Vegas hotel suite.

It came during an extended weekend break with friends before he embarks on the next phase of his military career.

The blurred images, which were published by celebrity gossip website TMZ, which is based in the United States, went viral yesterday, published on websites across the world.

They are believed to be the first intimate images published of a senior member of the Royal Family. There is no suggestion that anything other than horseplay is going on between the royal and the unnamed woman.

St James’s Palace yesterday confirmed it was Harry in the pictures but declined to comment further.

A source said the prince, an Army officer and Apache helicopter pilot, was just “letting off steam” before the next important phase of his military career.

In the first photograph, he 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 bare bottom facing the camera.

TMZ said the photos were taken last Friday 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.

It is the latest gaffe by the prince, who previous indiscretions include being photographed in a Nazi armband in 2005 at a fancydress birthday party, although if any action were to be taken against Harry, it would be up to his commanding officer.

In the past he has given his critics plenty of ammunition, from smoking cannabis as a teenager to a nightclub scuffle with a paparazzi photographer but recent years have seen Harry work hard to shake off his reputation as a playboy prince, earned from his regular appearances on the London nightclub scene during his early 20s.

Publication of the photographs raises questions, however, over the prince’s security and where the officers providing his 24-hour protection were. Dai Davies, the former head of royal protection at the Metropolitan Police Service, claimed the security detail demanded a careful balance between his right to live his life and the status of his position.

“We are paying huge amounts of money for this young man to be followed everywhere he goes by security, which costs so much,” Mr Davies told the Daily Telegraph.

“British security costs in excess of £120m a year but on the other hand, [royals] have to have a life and they didn’t choose to be royals. “I don’t envy their [security oficers’] job. It must be a nightmare at times, trying to ensure that he doesn’t get into these kinds of scrapes.”

The photographs followed after his long-weekend break in Los Angeles and Las Vegas that was well documented in the US.

Harry was filmed wearing a hat, sunglasses and colourful swimming shorts,and socialising at a hotel pool party in Las Vegas as bikini-clad women strolled around.

Singer Jennifer Lopez reportedly met him at the event at the MGM Grand hotel.

The 27-year-old even challenged US swimmer Ryan Lochte, who won two golds at London 2012, to a race across a pool during a visit to a nightclub but lost.

Last night Harry was believed to be on his way home to the UK.

A source stressed the naked pictures had been taken during Harry’s personal break from work: “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.”