ROYAL ADMITS HE SNORTED COCAINE AT LONDON PARTY

Lord Frederick Windsor, the son of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent
and a friend of Prince William, has admitted taking cocaine.

Two witnesses told The Sunday Times that they saw the Queen's cousin
taking the drug after arriving at a recent party in west London in the
early hours of the morning.

Frederick, 20, who is the great-grandson of George V and 28th in line
to the throne, has established a reputation for high living at
Magdalen College, Oxford, where he is about to enter his second year
studying classics.

He is a member of the close circle of friends around William who have
been involved in illegal drug use.

Camilla Parker Bowles's son, Tom, who is one of William's closest
friends, confessed earlier this year to a cocaine problem but has
subsequently said that he has overcome his habit.

The friends who disclosed Frederick's cocaine abuse said last week
that they had decided to come forward because of concern about
William's position. "Most of his circle take cocaine," one said.

They described how Frederick had snorted cocaine off a glossy
lifestyle magazine that was being passed around at the party. "He was
wearing an open-neck shirt with dark cords, casually dressed, but
quite smart. He was certainly not drunk when he arrived and was jovial
and chatty," one said.

"At about 2am, when there were between 15 and 20 people still at the
party, I saw him sniffing coke off a copy of the magazine." Frederick,
who is in New York on work experience with a finance company, said
yesterday that he had taken cocaine at the party earlier in the summer.

"I admit it is true. It is very difficult to avoid getting into this
sort of thing when you move in these circles, but I don't blame anyone
else for the incident. I hope this will be a lesson to others. I have
now rejected that side of life and I'm going to commit myself to my
studies," he said.

In a statement Princess Michael said: "I brought up my children to be
anti-drugs. I am disappointed that he experimented in this way, but he
has assured me that he will not do it again, and I trust him."
Frederick's cousin Lord Nicholas Windsor, 29, the youngest child of
the Duke and Duchess of Kent, is the only royal to have been caught
previously with drugs.

Nicholas, godson of the Prince of Wales, was cautioned in 1988 after
police searched him in St James's Park, yards from Buckingham Palace,
and found him to be in possesssion of a small amount of cannabis. He
was let off with a caution.

Lady Gabriella Windsor, Frederick's sister, was suspended from her
school in 1994 after trying to smuggle in cigarettes. A teacher caught
her with two friends after returning to her boarding school from an
illicit shopping trip. Prince and Princess Michael of Kent were said
to have been fully supportive of the punishment at the time.

At Oxford, Frederick is known to mix with members of the notoriously
hedonistic Assassins dining club, whose members include Tom Parker
Bowles, James Archer and the Earl of Mornington, grandson of the Duke
of Wellington. Frederick, however, said that he had rejected an
invitation to join.

The revelation of his drug abuse comes as the British Crime Survey has
revealed that cocaine has become Britain's fastest-growing
"recreational drug" among 20-year-olds. The survey showed that a
majority of the population - 52% - has experimented with illegal
drugs. One in 20 of those aged between 20 and 24 said they used
cocaine regularly.