Ex-royal butler Paul Kidd jailed for sex abuse of boys

As a former royal butler, Paul Kidd seemed to have the utmost respect for the monarchy, rushing to its defence on many occasions.

He served the Queen and the Queen Mother for nine years, before earning a living reminiscing about his days as a loyal servant.

But now it is he who has brought shame on the royal household, having been sentenced to a minimum of six years in prison for a string of child abuse offences.

His victims were three boys, and some of the offences go back three decades while others are recent.

Some of the offences were committed while he was working as a senior footman to the Queen Mother, and one of his victims was taken to meet her during a Christmas party at Clarence House.

The 55-year-old, from Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, pleaded guilty to nine counts of indecent assault and six counts of sexual activity with a child.

He also admitted possessing more than 18,000 indecent images of children and making indecent images.

Police launched an investigation after one of his victims read an interview with Kidd in the Manchester Evening News to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana in August 2007.

The victim, now in his 40s and married, said Kidd regularly abused him for five years from the age of 13.

He said he initially thought he was "friendly", "really interesting" and had an "air of respectability".

"I didn't make the connection that it was a bad thing that was going on," he said.

He said that Kidd talked constantly about the Royal Family and provided anecdotes of his life as their servant.

"Whatever conversation was going on, unless it was sexual, he moved it back towards the Royal Family," he said.

"Everywhere you looked on his walls, there was not an empty space that wasn't filled with a picture or a letter from the Royal Family."

He added that he felt "nothing" for "sick and predatory" Kidd, but wished he had spoken to the police sooner to "prevent other people being abused".

Paul Kidd was clearly adept at leading a double life.

The offences date back to 1974, just a year before he joined Buckingham Palace as a steward.

Born in Lancashire in May 1953, Kidd was made the Queen's butler in 1977 and then worked for the Queen Mother from 1979 to 1984, when a cancer scare forced him out of royal service.

But he never let go of his lucrative royal link, becoming a regular on the lecture circuit.

He travelled the world giving speeches on board cruise ships, appeared on US chat shows and even set up a website advertising his "hilarious and informative" lectures.

They offered titillating, if trivial, insight into his days at Buckingham Palace and Clarence House, and had titles such as "What happened to the Queen's tiara?" and "How did a Scots Guards officer make the Queen blush at Balmoral?"

According to his website, he joined the Royal Navy after school, looking after the captain and officers as a silver service waiter.

"During his years in royal service, he met and looked after three American presidents, every King and Queen in Europe and very many other Heads of State from around the world," said his website biography.

For a while, he was an unofficial spokesman for the Royal Family, commenting on a range of stories from the Queen's 70th birthday in 1996 to Princess Margaret's death in 2002

In 1996, he told the Sunday Mirror: "She was always very courteous but she only ever addressed me as 'Kidd' - never by my first name."

Following a security breach at Buckingham Palace by a journalist and allegations about Prince Charles' private life, he told the BBC in 2003 that "poisonous elements" were trying to ruin the monarchy.

He also hit out at his former colleague Paul Burrell for his "obsession" with Princess Diana.

"He was affectionately known as 'the doggie walker' in those days," he said.

"He was trusted by the Royal Family and I believe he has let them down badly.

"I am upset because it reflects badly on the staff and tars us all with the same brush."

In 2007, he tried to move into politics, standing as a UK Independent Party candidate in the Dukinfield and Stalybridge local council election. He came third with 283 votes.

BBC News