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Gay rape case engulfs royals
LONDON, England -- An allegation of a gay rape is engulfing the royal family as British newspaper coverage continues to be dominated by the aftermath of the Paul Burrell trial. An ex-royal servant said on Sunday he was the gay rape victim who Burrell said was taped by Princess Diana explaining how the attack occurred. The former servant was reported in a British tabloid as saying his alleged attacker was a key aide to Prince Charles who remains on the Prince of Wales' staff. A spokeswoman for the Prince of Wales' home, St James' Palace, told CNN that the ex-servant's allegations were "totally inaccurate" and that the palace would have no further comment. Burrell, who had been charged with stealing some of Diana's belongings, walked free from court last week when the case against him collapsed. He sold his story to one newspaper prompting a media scrum by other papers hunting their own exclusives. The alleged gay rape victim told the Mail on Sunday that the princess coaxed the allegations out of him while he was receiving treatment in hospital for depression and drink problems. George Smith, 42, waived his anonymity to tell the Mail on Sunday that said he was raped after getting drunk at the attacker's home, the newspaper reported. "The princess was shocked. She looked stunned and told me she knew there was something troubling me. But I told her it was a very hard thing to admit. It was a big secret," the Mail on Sunday quoted Smith as saying. A statement from St James' Palace said the allegations had been investigated by the palace when they were first made in 1996 and again by police in 2001 but no charges were brought. "If (he) has some new evidence relating to the case, he should provide it immediately," a palace spokeswoman told the UK's Press Association. A police spokesman said no further action was being taken against the alleged attacker. Later on Sunday, the legal firm Kingsley Napley released a statement they said was on behalf of the alleged rapist denying Smith's allegations. "Our client has consistently denied that these offences ever took place, and whilst he has no desire to enter into the current media frenzy, cannot allow wholly untrue allegations against him to be reported and unchallenged," the statement said. Their client was not named in the statement. The Mail on Sunday also did not name the alleged rapist. The scandal has come back into the spotlight after Burrell's trial was thrown out of court when Queen Elizabeth II came forward with crucial information undermining the case against him. He sold his story for an estimated £300,000 ($477,000) to the Daily Mirror, which has published his account of his life with Diana over four days, with up to 15 pages a day devoted to the story. Editor Piers Morgan says the series of stories has sold more than a million extra copies of the paper. But all other national newspapers, especially the Mirror's tabloid rivals, have been searching out their own stories.
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