Man Guilty Of Mugging Thomas Van Straubenzee, Attacked While On Phone To Prince Harry

Mugger Guilty Of Assault On Prince Harry's Schoolfriend

A man accused of mugging a friend of the Royal Family and who was talking on the phone to Prince Harry at the time, has been found guilty of the attack.

Winful Taylor, 27, of Stockwell, south London, denied robbing Thomas van Straubenzee, who is reportedly a broker, taking two mobile phones and a wallet, last November.

He was found guilty by a jury of six men and six women after two hours of deliberation at Kingston Crown Court.

The robbery sparked a security scare because Mr van Straubenzee's Nokia phone, which he had been using to talk to his old schoolfriend Harry at the time, contained telephone numbers of several members of the Royal Family.

The jury was not told about the full extent of Mr van Straubenzee's relationship with the royals as the judge deemed it irrelevant to the case.

Taylor and another man, who has not been caught, took 29-year-old Mr van Straubenzee's wallet and two mobile phones during the attack near Battersea Park.

At the start of the case, prosecutor Daniel Robinson said: "There is a degree of sensitivity about it because Mr van Straubenzee's phone contained contact details of members of the royal household.

"There was concern on behalf of the police to make sure that those details didn't enter into the public domain, and therefore investigations in relation to CCTV were quite widespread and there was a certain amount of telephone analysis conducted in relation to the case."

Mr van Straubenzee, who is also a close friend of the Duke of Cambridge, first met Harry at Ludgrove Prep School.

The royal brothers are patrons of a memorial fund dedicated to Mr van Straubenzee's brother Henry, who was killed in a car crash in 2002.

Judge Richard Southwell told jurors to ignore press reports about his relationship with the royals.

He said: "It is public knowledge but it does not form any part of the evidence you have to consider in this case."

Taylor did not give evidence and no defence witnesses were called on his behalf.

The jury was told Taylor previously pleaded guilty to two robberies carried out in 2006 and was convicted earlier this year of an attempted robbery carried out with another man in Hyde Park five weeks before the mugging of Mr van Straubenzee.

Two days after the robbery, police found Taylor with two mobile phones. One was a Samsung and one was Mr van Straubenzee's red Nokia.

Mr van Straubenzee's wallet and BlackBerry have not been recovered.

Taylor denied responsibility for the robbery, and said he bought the Nokia for £20 from a friend the previous day.