Prince George and paparazzi: former Diana officer blames police for royal spat

A former Scotland Yard officer once assigned to protect Diana and a young Prince William says that the royal warning to paparazzi over the harassment of Prince George is down to police failing to communicate with the media.

Last week, Kensington Palace issued an unprecedented warning accusing paparazzi of using “increasingly dangerous tactics” to obtain covert images of the third in line to the throne.

Ken Wharfe, a former Scotland Yard protection officer to the late Diana, Princess of Wales, and her sons, princes William and Harry, says the need to send a letter shows a failure of communication from the police.

Related: Palace warns of 'increasingly dangerous' paparazzi tactics targeting Prince George

“It seems to me from a policing point of view [that] there is a lack of communication to deal with the problem at source,” he said, speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Media Show on Wednesday. “What has happened is that it would appear to me that Scotland Yard’s finest have failed to communicate and deal with this matter at source.”

Tactics highlighted in the strongly worded open letter by Jason Knauf, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s communications secretary, include photographers hiding in car boots and using other children as bait.

Wharfe argued that sending the letter was an “over the top” approach that showed how much relations with the police had deteriorated.

“I take the point we live in fairly heightened security times but the tactics haven’t changed [since my day],” he said. “I recall when William was five and Harry was three, leaving the side door at Kensington Palace, having to kick out the paparazzi staked out in the yew trees at the back of the garden. So I don’t think things have changed. It seems a rather over the top approach by [William’s] comms director.”