On August 16th 2006, The Sun newspaper ran the story Playboy Prince Cops a Feel (the current version has been amended in light of criticism). In it, Harry was accused of drunkenly groping friend Natalie Pinkham at the Boujis nightclub while his girlfriend Chelsy Davey was out of the country.

A photo of the Prince grabbing Natalie’s breast was printed in support of this claim, along with various foreboding comments about the trouble he’ll be in when Chelsy returns.

Here’s the picture. Does it prove The Sun’s allegation?

For relevance, it’s pretty good. In the picture we see Harry, with his hand where it shouldn’t be. We have to take The Sun’s word about Harry having a girlfriend who’s out of the country, but the important elements of the claim are represented in the picture.

For selectivity, there aren’t any problems. Even if this is the only moment that Harry was out of line, that’s enough to support The Sun’s claim that he’s been misbehaving. One transgression would be enough to land him in trouble, and we see that in the photo.

The main weakness of the photo as evidence relates to significance. It’s extremely difficult to tell where it was taken; is that Boujis, or somewhere else? More importantly, it’s very difficult to tell when it was taken; is it a recent photo, or one that was taken a while ago? A certain amount of interpretation is necessary to get from the image to the claim it’s supposed to support.

Later in the day, Clarence House responded to the story on behalf of the Prince. They protested that the photo was taken three years ago–before Harry and Chelsy got together–and asked The Sun to correct their story. In support of this, they pointed out that Harry, and William who is in the background of the picture, both have different hair-styles now to those in the photo.

Beware of taking photos, particularly those in tabloids, at face value.