The then-Prince of Wales was pictured with the deputy Lord Lieutenant for Inverness in 1999

An image posted on social media, including a picture and caption, shows King Charles, when he was titled the Prince of Wales, with a caption claiming he is standing alongside both the disgraced entertainer Jimmy Savile and the Dunblane massacre mass shooter Thomas Hamilton.

The caption reads “Prince Charles. Jimmy Saville and Thomas Hamilton the Dunblane school killer . . All friends”, with an emoji of a woman shrugging.

Evaluation: False

The photo does show King Charles, when he was titled the Prince of Wales, and Jimmy Savile together in 1999.

But the third person in the photo is Iain Thornber, acting as a deputy Lord Lieutenant for Inverness, a regional representative of the monarch.

Thomas Hamilton, the shooter in the 1996 Dunblane massacre, is not in the photo and died before it was taken, turning a gun on himself after the shootings.

The facts

The photo is genuine and was taken by a photographer for the PA news agency in Glencoe, Scotland, on July 7 1999.

The three people in the photo are Charles, then-titled the Prince of Wales and now King Charles, Jimmy Savile, and Iain Thornber.

Mr Thornber was acting as a deputy Lord Lieutenant for Inverness, a regional representative of the monarch, whose role included arranging all visits by members of the royal family and escorting royal visitors during their visit.

The Dunblane massacre refers to an incident in March 13, 1996, in Dunblane, Scotland, when lone gunman Thomas Hamilton shot dead 16 children and their teacher in a local primary school before turning the gun on himself.

There is no evidence to suggest Hamilton was friends with or had ever met Charles.

A review by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, published in 2013, concluded “there appears to be a general acceptance that Savile was a prolific sex offender and a paedophile”. Although Savile was never convicted before he died in 2011, the investigation referred to his “crimes” and “victims”, reasoning a “substantial number of victims”, amounting to several hundred people, was “indicative of a pattern of criminal behaviour”.

Links

Claim on TikTok (archived post and video)

Original image and caption details (archived)

Report in The Scotsman on the Dunblane shootings (archived)

The Inverness Lieutenancy (archived)

Jimmy Savile review (archived)

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