A decisive setback came to Prince Harry today from a judicial front in which, unlike what happened in the cases against the tabloid press, he is unable to obtain the desired result: that of the automatic police escort for him and his family during their stays in the United Kingdom.
The High Court of London has in fact rejected the appeal presented at the time by the lawyers of the second son of King Charles III against the decision of the British Home Office to deny him the protection of Scotland Yard agents following his abandonment of his role as senior "active" member of the Royal Family, after the traumatic break from the dynasty in 2020 and the move with his wife Meghan to the United States.
It is not the first time that the Duke of Sussex, through his lawyers, has failed in an attempt to convince the judges of the Kingdom of the need to have this type of protection.
Last May, the High Court also denied him the right to pay for a police escort out of his own pocket, following the reasoning of the government committee for the protection of royalty and public figures (known as Ravec), which he had contested as irregular the claim to privately engage the public force.
Therefore, the provisions of the Home Office remain valid, according to which the apparatus is required to ensure the Dukes of Sussex - given their current status - public protection only from time to time and based on their own assessments of any needs.
In his ruling today - the last act of a proceeding which took place in numerous hearings, some in the presence of the rebel prince himself - judge Peter Lane did not go into the merits of the reasons invoked by Harry's lawyers, limiting himself to decreeing that the decision of the Ministry of Internal "was not irrational", nor tainted by a "manifest injustice".
The prince's response was not long in coming: he made it known that he intended to appeal in an attempt to overturn the verdict.
In a statement it is stated that "the Duke is not asking for preferential treatment" but for a fair and legitimate application of the rules, and reference is made to a lack of ad hoc analysis by Ravec on the potential risks for the Sussexes.
Harry, in his most recent trips to the Kingdom (including the last quick visit to his father a few hours after being informed of King Charles' cancer diagnosed at the beginning of February) was protected by a private escort paid for by himself.
But the question of his safety, from various possible threats, but also from intrusions attributed to British tabloids and paparazzi, is a very sensitive issue for the cadet prince, both due to the trauma of the death of his mother Diana, who lost her life in the tragic car accident in the Alma tunnel, in Paris, in 1997, fleeing from a last night chase by hordes of photographers, both for what happened to him and his wife recently.
In fact, just today the American police stated that they have sufficient evidence to arrest two people for that "almost catastrophic" chase in New York, as the Sussexes had reported last May, conducted by the paparazzi.
News that drops the poisonous accusations made by the English tabloids against the dukes for having dramatized what happened to them along the streets of the US metropolis.
Meanwhile, the 'no' to the escort from the British justice system can only hinder Harry on the path to a possible return to a part-time role at the service of the crown, in this moment of great need given Charles' illness and Kate's long convalescence after the abdominal operation, which had emerged in recent days in the pages of the Times according to the declarations of sources close to the sovereign and Queen Camilla on the one hand, and to the dukes on the other.
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