Man bailed in UK royals phone tap probe

Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall have had their phones tapped in the past. Picture / Reuters

LONDON - Police investigating allegations that members of the royal household - including Prince Charles - may have had their mobile phones calls intercepted freed a man on bail on Wednesday.

The unnamed man, arrested along with two others in South London on Tuesday, was bailed to return to a central London police station in September.

The two other men were still being questioned.

Clive Goodman, the royal correspondent for top-selling Sunday newspaper The News of the World, was among the three suspects, the paper said.

Police said they had opened an investigation after three members of staff at Prince Charles's Clarence House residence alerted the Metropolitan Police's Royalty Protection Department.

Security sources said the investigation focussed on possible interceptions of voice mail messages over a lengthy period and implications that had for the safety of members of the royal family.

However, after initial probes, police said they had now broadened their inquiries to find whether public figures beyond the royal household may also have had their phone messages intercepted.

They said the phone companies concerned were cooperating closely.

Media speculated that the alleged tapping may have involved phone calls of government ministers and celebrities.

Scotland Yard's anti-terrorism branch is leading the investigation.

This would not be the first time that the royal family has been the subject of telephone tapping.

Prince Charles, his wife Camilla Parker-Bowles and his late wife Diana, Princess of Wales, were targeted by phone tappers in the past, resulting in embarrassing details of their complex private lives being made public.

A tape of a conversation between Charles and Camilla revealed an intimate relationship between the two while Charles was married to Diana.

Diana's close relationship with a male friend while she was married to Charles was also exposed by a phone tapper.

Those conversations were taped by hackers using radio scanners.

- REUTERS