A neutral particle analyser was deployed on JET for a measurement of the distribution function of megaelectronvolt energy protons driven by the high power ion cyclotron resonance frequency heating of deuterium plasmas in the hydrogen minority scheme. Unexpectedly, efficient neutralization of megaelectronvolt energy protons was observed in the plasma centre without recourse to injection of a beam of atoms to provide electron donors for charge exchange neutralization reactions. A model is presented that elucidates the role of carbon and beryllium, the main intrinsic impurities in JET plasmas, in this process and establishes charge exchange between hydrogen-like ions of the impurities and protons as the main neutralization process. A model calculation for deducing the proton energy distribution function f(Ep) from the measured hydrogen flux is described. The effects of uncertainties in neutralization cross-sections on the inferred f(Ep) are examined. The validity of this model of impurity induced neutralization (IIN) is tested by using it to describe the measured hydrogen flux in different conditions of plasma heating and fuelling. A crucial point in making these tests was to use measured local values of bare impurity ion densities; the required measurements were realized using charge exchange spectroscopy. Using IIN modelling and a procedure in which a known change in the density of deuterium atoms at the plasma centre was made by applying neutral beam injection, we have deduced the background thermal deuterium atom density at the plasma centre, which is an important new diagnostic result. Concerning future experiments, the model predicts that carbon and beryllium impurities will be major contributors to neutralization of hydrogenic ions (protons, deuterons and tritons) in ITER plasmas, for ion energies E