Castle arrest follows history of security breaches

Security at official Royal residences and at external events has been improved over the years but intruders have still been able to get surprisingly close to senior members of the Royal family.

The most serious breach came in March 1982 when Michael Fagan broke into the Queen’s bedroom at Buckingham Palace. She woke to find him sitting on her bed. The pair allegedly chatted for half an hour. Fagan, who was 30 at the time, was later jailed.

But the incident was by no means the only security breach to shake the Royals.

In 1974, a deranged gunman tried to abduct the Princess Royal as she and her first husband, Captain Mark Phillips, were being driven along the Mall to Buckingham Palace after a charity film show.

The would-be kidnapper, Ian Ball, forced the royal car to a halt and brandished a pistol at the driver and bodyguard. The kidnap bid was thwarted.

Anne’s personal protection officer, James Beaton, shot and wounded during the incident, was later awarded the George Cross for his bravery. Two months later, Ball was sent to a mental hospital by a judge at the Old Bailey.

In 1979, Earl Mountbatten of Burma, great uncle of the Prince of Wales, was killed when an INLA bomb blew apart his fishing boat off Mullaghmore, Co Sligo, where he had a holiday home.

In 1981, Marcus Sarjeant, 17, fired six blank shots at the Queen at the Trooping the Colour ceremony.

In 1985, a French tourist was arrested after jumping over the palace railings to get a better view of the Changing of the Guard ceremony. He was freed after a ticking-off from police.

A year later, an ex-soldier managed to drive a Land Rover from the Royal Mews after a gateman mistook him for a member of staff.

In March 1987, a man claiming to be a Russian spy climbed the railings. Roland Kubosaka, 34, was bound over to keep the peace for 12 months.

In June of the same year, a mentally disturbed man tried to get into the palace but was tackled by police in the forecourt.

Then in April 1989, mentally-ill Michael Crook, 35, tried to get to the Queen near the palace stables. He claimed he wanted to talk about nuclear war and walked past armed guards to try to meet her.

In 1990, unemployed Eugene Smith, 52, was given a conditional discharge after a court heard he had travelled specially from Dublin and broken into the grounds after becoming infatuated with a woman claiming to be the Queen’s niece.

And in the same year, Stephen Goulding was jailed for three months after breaking into the grounds. He claimed he was Prince Andrew Windsor and declared the Queen was his “mum”.

In 1991, Darryl Marcus, 21, got within yards of the Queen’s private apartments during seven minutes he spent in the grounds and buildings at Buckingham Palace.

In July 1992, Kevin McMahon, 25, was arrested inside the grounds for the second time in a week. During his first sortie, he forced a helicopter carrying the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh to divert as he roamed the grounds.

Also in 1992, an intruder walked into St James’s Palace and downed a whisky in Princess Alexandra’s private apartment.

Police are not prepared to discuss in detail the security of the Royal family but it is believed that precautions against intruders at Buckingham Palace are highly sophisticated, involving 24 hour monitoring of state-of-the-art sensors and screens.

It was reported that the Darryl Marcus incident prompted the introduction of an alarm system which broadcasts “intruder in the grounds” at the first sign of a break-in.

All windows are then closed, and Royal bodyguards and security men rush to the spot where the breach has been detected.

In July 1993, women anti-nuclear protesters used ladders to climb the Palace walls, cut barbed wire and came within yards of royal apartments before armed officers arrived. The women sat singing and chanting on the lawn for 15 minutes.

1994 was a particularly bad year for the Royal security advisers.

In January 1994, a man firing a starting pistol dashed towards the Prince of Wales at an open air event in Sydney. The 23-year-old student, who wanted to publicise the plight of the Cambodian boat people, fired two shots, then leapt onto the stage at the city’s Australia Day celebrations. The Prince was not hurt.

A month later, security at the Royal palaces was slammed as “abysmal” following a break-in at the Prince of Wales’s apartment at St James’s Palace. Cufflinks given to Prince Charles by Camilla Parker Bowles were stolen.

The incident came three weeks after one of the most bizarre breaches of security at a Royal home.

A naked paraglider landed on the roof of Buckingham Palace on February 5. American James “Fanman” Miller was fined £200 and ordered to be deported.

Then in December 1994, police launched a review of security after a £7,000 ceremonial sword was stolen from a museum attached to the castle. The sword, belonging to the Duke of Edinburgh, was taken from a display after a cabinet was prized open.

The theft came just days after two drunken Eton schoolboys scaled the walls of the castle while the Queen was in residence. They climbed into a castle courtyard during a Saturday night prank, but were discovered when they triggered off a series of security alarms and lighting.

In June 1995, armed detectives trapped an intruder who broke into the grounds of Buckingham Palace. The 33-year-old man was arrested by officers after triggering alarms in the multi-million pound security system installed at the Palace.

Again in 1995, Student John Gillard, 21, drove 200 miles from his Wakefield home before ramming the gates of Buckingham Palace at high speed with his car. One of the two-and-a-half ton gates was ripped off its hinges by the 50mph impact but the Royal family was not at home and no-one was hurt. Gillard was detained under the Mental Health Act.

In April 1997, another urgent review of security was under way after an absconded mental patient from Hastings, East Sussex, managed to breach tight security to wander around the grounds of the Palace.

Security around the Royals outside their official homes has over the years also been exposed.

In 2000, a knifeman with a hoax bomb was arrested during the Queen’s tour of Australia. Unemployed Gregory Pailthorpe, 39, of Hampstead Road, Homebush, New South Wales, claimed he was trying to protect the Queen, not harm her.

Unbeknown to the Queen he was arrested in Sydney with an 8in kitchen knife taped to his leg and carrying a backpack containing a box with batteries, wires and electrical tape. Pailthorpe was sent to a psychiatric hospital.

In December last year, an inquiry was launched into how an intruder entered St James’s Palace late at night without being stopped by security.

There were reports that the man was only apprehended after he started drunkenly knocking at the door of the Princess Royal, apparently to ask for directions to Victoria Station.

And in April this year, a 25-year-old man was arrested in the grounds of Windsor Castle while the Queen was in residence. Residents of the Mews in the castle grounds reported seeing man trying to open doors. A Metropolitan Police spokesman said at the time: “At no time was the security of any member of the Royal family at risk.”