PRINCE 'FRAUGHT' OVER WILLIAM'S COCAINE FRIENDS

THE PRINCE of Wales is said by close friends to be "fraught with worry" over
fresh revelations that friends of Prince William are heavy users of cocaine
and other illegal drugs.

Peregrine Hood, 24, the son of Viscount Bridport and an acquaintance of
Prince William, has a drug habit that is "now out of control". A friend,
concerned by the abuse, has revealed how Hood, a friend of Tom Parker
Bowles, recently consumed drugs at several London parties. "I have seen him
sniffing cocaine often," the source said.

Last week The Sunday Times revealed how Parker Bowles, also 24, had attended
a party in west London and snorted cocaine in front of a handful of friends.

One decided to disclose the drug abuse because he felt that Parker Bowles, a
public relations consultant, was becoming a bad influence on William. Parker
Bowles, the son of Charles's companion Camilla, needed a "shot across his
bows", the source said.

Hood has been seen at a number of recent parties snorting cocaine. "There is
a groundswell of opinion among our friends that something has to be done to
stop this influence on William. He is now terribly vulnerable and sadly
everyone wants a slice of the cake [his friendship]," the source said.

When Hood was confronted with the disclosure yesterday he did not deny the
allegations. Arriving at his home in Fulham, west London, at lunchtime, the
young aristocrat, still wearing a dinner jacket from the night before, said:
"I have absolutely nothing to say." Hood, a descendant of Admiral Nelson,
and Parker Bowles are part of a circle of about a dozen who have appointed
themselves "William's friends".

Some of the group, who are mostly in their late teens and early twenties,
are also members of a notorious Oxford University undergraduate club called
the Assassins. Parker Bowles, when a student, became the so-called "baron"
and has maintained his links, according to one source.

Despite the age difference, William, 16, regards Parker Bowles as a friend.
If Charles were ever to marry Camilla, they would be stepbrothers.

The Sunday Times has also learnt that one of William's friends at Eton was
expelled last term for smoking cannabis. The pupil had been a contemporary
of the prince at Ludgrove preparatory school and, although he was not in the
prince's house at Eton, he had remained a friend.

Last week John Lewis, the head master at Eton, said the school operated a
zero tolerance policy towards pupils caught with drugs.

"We try to make it helpfully clear that involvement with illicit drugs will
cost a boy his place at the school," he said. "This is to clarify the
position and deter boys from trying drugs and therefore to protect them. We
are a boarding school and it seems to us to be the best policy."