Wildlife campaigners have called on Prince Harry to use his forthcoming memoirs to help solve a 14-year mystery about the killing of two of Britain’s rarest birds over one of the Queen’s estates.
In October 2007, just a few weeks after his 23rd birthday, Harry was questioned by the police after two hen harriers, a legally protected species, were seen being shot over Sandringham in Norfolk.
The prince had been out shooting on the estate on the evening of 24 October, with family friend William van Cutsem, then 28, when the incident occurred. At the time the Queen was a patron of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Witnesses said they saw two hen harriers in flight being shot, an offence under wildlife protection legislation which carries a prison sentence of up to six months or a fine.
Harry, Van Custem, and a Sandringham gamekeeper denied shooting the birds. And as no bodies of the birds were recovered from the scene no charges were brought. At the time Clarence house said Harry had no knowledge of the incident. After 14 years no one has ever been prosecuted for the…
