A FORMER royal groom who tried to convince police and the NSPCC that his rival in love was a paedophile was jailed for three years yesterday.
Terrence Prince, 40, used his computer in the Buckingham Palace Mews to download pornographic images of children. He sent them to the police, the NSPCC and his former girlfriend, Angela Donaldson, who was living with his intended victim, Keith Illingworth, in Wrexham, North Wales.
Mr Prince, who also sent "warning letters" to neighbours, was convicted at Mold Crown Court of six charges including the distribution of indecent photographs.
~*~
Diana 'reckless', says aide(BBC News)
The former private secretary of Diana, Princess of Wales, has given a TV interview in the US saying she was "almost reckless in her disregard" for her safety.
Patrick Jephson, whose biography of the princess has caused a storm of controversy, was speaking to Barbara Walters in an interview to be broadcast on the US network ABC's 20/20 programme on Saturday.
She also showed a desire for "sympathy and victimhood", he added.
He defended his decision to write the book, which is critical of the princess, despite strong objections from the Royal Family.
"The impression that a lot of people have is that the Princess of Wales is a fairytale figure, an icon," he told Ms Walters.
"Other people have an impression of her as being in some way unbalanced, and as I saw the two false impressions being left in her memory, I thought it was imperative that a truthful impression should also be left."
Ms Walters asked Mr Jephson if his act of writing the book, Shadows of a Princess, could be considered treason.
He answered: "I don't think the truth can ever be treason."
Mr Jephson, who was the princess's trusted aide for seven years, told Ms Walters that the princess had seemed intent on self-destruction in the last years of her life, dispensing with her police bodyguards.
"I think by that stage she had become almost reckless in her disregard for herself.
"There was a desire for victimhood sometimes, or at least a desire for sympathy."
He added that towards the end of the princess's life, "everything that she had built she seemed intent on dismantling".
'Exploited'
Mr Jephson is set to make hundreds of thousands of pounds from his book in royalties and serialisation fees.
Last week, Prince William admitted that the book, which is being serialised by the Sunday Times, had upset him and his brother.
He told reporters at his first face-to-face media interview: "Harry and I are both quite upset about it - that our mother's trust has been betrayed and even now she is still being exploited."
Mr Jephson said he respected and understood Prince William's comments, but added that when the whole book was read it would "eventually be seen to be truthful and sympathetic to the memory of the late princess".
~*~
US girls flock to Prince William's university(Yahoo: Reuters)
LONDON (Reuters) - Teenage American girls are vying for a university place alongside Prince William at St Andrews university in Scotland, newspapers said on Saturday.
Interest in St Andrews among American students has reached fever pitch since Prince William announced in August that he would study at Scotland's oldest university in 2001 after taking a year off, the Daily Express said.
The 18-year-old prince will start a four-year course for a degree in art history in the autumn of 2001.
British Council officials in the United States said enquiries about St Andrews were at unprecedented levels.
"There has been a fair amount of interest in St Andrews, more than usual. We suspect this might be because of Prince William," Jenny Scott, the British Council's director of education promotion in Washington, said in the Daily Express.
The Daily Express said U.S. students were also interested in British universities due to the strong dollar and rumours that Chelsea Clinton might follow her father to Oxford University.
More than 30,000 U.S. students came to Britain to study in 1999, the Daily Express said.
William is enjoying a adventurous year off which has already taken him to Belize in Central America and Rodrigues in the Indian Ocean.
In what appears to be a first for British royalty he is currently in Chile sleeping in a tent in Patagonia as part of an expedition that will see William building bridges and observing the local wildlife.