British royal courtiers were locked in crisis talks last night as an Italian newspaper named the aide to Prince Charles accused of male rape.
The disclosure by La Repubblica - in its Rome-based newspaper and on the Internet - came as pressure continued to build on Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles to allow an independent inquiry into the facts surrounding the dramatic intervention by the Queen, which led to the collapse of the theft trial of the former royal butler, Mr Paul Burrell.
La Repubblica revealed the identity of the accused aide in a report about the allegations which have engulfed the royal family in the aftermath of Mr Burrell's sensational acquittal on charges of stealing possessions of the late Diana, Princess of Wales. The rape allegations do not involve Mr Burrell. They have been denied vigorously by the aide who has so far not been identified by the British press for legal reasons.
Prince Charles is reportedly despairing at the revival of the allegations against one of his staff by former royal valet and Falklands veteran Mr George Smith (42), who waived his right to anonymity to claim that a royal aide raped him in a London house in 1989 and again tried to sexually assault him during the Prince's visit to Egypt in 1995. The accused man broke his silence through his solicitors, reportedly retained by the Prince of Wales himself, to condemn Mr Smith as an "unreliable alcoholic" who had significantly changed his story.
The latest round of allegation and innuendo had the royal household cast in "panic" yesterday following Mr Smith's further claim that he had witnessed an incident involving a member of the royal family and a palace servant, disclosure of which could have "grave consequences for the entire royal establishment".
Accusing the royal family of a cover-up, Mr Smith told the Mail on Sunday this was "perhaps the primary reason" for the Queen's unprecedented intervention and the collapse of the Burrell trial before Mr Burrell himself was called to give evidence.
It emerged during the trial that the late Princess of Wales kept a tape recording of Mr Smith's allegations against a member of Prince Charles's staff along with other items - including letters to her from the Duke of Edinburgh - in a locked box in Kensington Palace, the contents of which have never been recovered.
Scotland Yard investigated the rape claim last year and has indicated that the latest allegations will not lead to a re-opening of the case.
Prince Charles's spokeswoman said: "If Mr Smith has some new evidence relating to the case, he should provide it immediately." She said St James's Palace had investigated the allegations in 1996 when "no evidence was forthcoming and the person concerned did not want to pursue the matter further".
Meanwhile, the statement by Kingsley Napley for the accused aide of Prince Charles claimed Mr Smith's latest accusations differed "substantially and significantly in many regards" from the details he originally gave police.
The statement said Mr Smith, who as a Welsh guard was aboard the Sir Galahad when it was bombed in the Falklands, was "in a poor mental and physical state and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder" and was also an alcoholic. It alleged "demonstrable discrepancies" between Mr Smith's latest account, in which he says the alleged rape took place while he was unconscious and "insensitive from drink", and an original allegation to police that "he was fully awake throughout and sought to resist the alleged offence".
While their client had "no desire to enter the current media frenzy" the statement said he could not allow "wholly untrue allegations against him to be reported and unchallenged".