December 16, 2002	Monday	Shawwal 11, 1423

LONDON, Dec 15: Britain’s Prince Harry has been alerted to an alleged plot to steal his hair to obtain a DNA sample, British newspapers reported Sunday.

Michael Peat, the private secretary to Harry’s father, Prince Charles, received a letter last week containing details of the plan, The Sunday Times said.

The letter was given to the police and Charles and Harry were alerted.

The paper said that, according to an unnamed source close to the princes, the letter claimed that a media organisation had hired a private detective to steal the hair.

According to a separate report in the Mail on Sunday, the aim of the plot was to sell the hair to a foreign newspaper to test rumours that Harry, 18, is the son of the late Princess Diana’s former lover, cavalry officer James Hewitt, rather than Charles.

It said the scheme would have used an attractive girl to pluck a hair from Harry’s head.

The Mail on Sunday said that public relations consultant Alan Kilkenny had received a tip-off from a former police officer about the scam.

It quoted Kilkenny as saying: “I alerted St James’s Palace (Charle’s office) after hearing that a juvenile member of the royal family was the target of a sting.”

The source cited by the Sunday Times meanwhile said he feared the claims were a “set-up” to embarrass the royals, who are still reeling from a string of revelations which emerged during the recent trial of a former butler to the late Princess Diana.

The case, against Diana’s one-time butler Paul Burrell, collapsed after Queen Elizabeth revealed that Burrell had told her he intended to hold on to some of the princess’s belongings for safekeeping.

“The recent controversies involving the butlers has encourged all sorts of unpleasant people to come out of the woodwork,” the source was reported as saying.

The paper said that Peat had considered it necessary to take the tip-off seriously because it came from an ex-policeman acting through a well-known London law firm.—AFP