BRITAIN: Prince Harry's art teacher secretly recorded a conversation with her royal pupil - which she claims incriminated him in exam cheating - in an attempt to fight her pending dismissal from Eton College, a tribunal heard yesterday.
Ms Sarah Forsyth's barrister told a hearing that the school's continued failure to act on her complaints of harassment, made against another member of staff, led her to take this step.
Her barrister, Robin Allen QC, said, after feeling ignored by the school, Ms Forsyth decided to obtain evidence of exam "cheating" involving Mr Ian Burke, the head of art at Eton, against whom her allegations were made.
The hearing was told how she claimed Mr Burke had instructed her to carry out work for Prince Harry's AS-level project in 2002.
Mr Allen said Miss Forsyth felt this was "unethical and probably constituted cheating," but she decided not to mention it for fear she would be further "victimised" if she did.
As her position at the school was becoming "precarious", "she felt it was necessary to tape record an admission by Prince Harry that the work he had done for his expressive project was largely hers," the hearing was told.
Miss Forsyth said it had proved "difficult to talk to Prince Harry because he was always closely guarded by his bodyguards."
But on May 16th 2003 she seized her opportunity. Calling him into her room, the 30-year-old teacher secretly recorded a conversation with the prince, in which she claims he said of his AS-level project the year before: "I did about a sentence of it."
However, in a transcript later released by Eton, the wording differed slightly with Prince Harry apparently saying: "I was, like, a sentence in it".