#Buckingham palace intruder how to
'Elizabeth R: A Biography,' a 1983 biography of the Queen by Lady Langford, describes how the Queen "reacted calmly" to the intruder, and wondered how to call for help without "frightening" Fagan.
The Times detailed that it was only when Fagan asked for a cigarette that the Queen pointed out that there were none in the room, before taking "the opportunity to summon help" by calling a footman. He claimed that he had not entered the palace with this intention but that it formed in his mind for the first time when he saw the ashtray." The same police report reveals that Fagan was "carrying one piece of the broken ashtray, with which he has said that he intended to slash his wrists in the presence of Her Majesty. Meanwhile the footman was outside exercising the palace corgis, and the maid was cleaning in another room with the door shut "so that the noise of her work would not disturb Her Majesty".
#Buckingham palace intruder series
The Scotland Yard report from the time revealed that while the night alarm bell (connected to the corridor outside the Queen's room and to the pantry) worked in theory, by a series of coincidences no one heard or responded to it.įor example, "the police sergeant who is in the corridor outside at night had gone off duty at about 6 A.M., when members of the domestic staff had come on duty." What happened in the Queen's bedroom?Įntering the royal apartments, Michael Fagan "spent ten minutes" in the Queen's bedchamber in the early hours of Friday morning, 9th July 1982 (via The Times front-page, 3th July 1982), after entering at 7.15am and opening the curtains.Īdditionally, "when the Queen tried to summon help when he entered her room, she found a 'panic button' was not working".
The same Times article also detailed some previous breaches in security, including an alleged incident where an officer was "in bed with a maid when he should have been on duty outside the Queen's bedchamber," and how officers were reportedly found "paddling in the goldfish ponds". Meanwhile a report by the Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner John Dellow suggested that there had been widespread "complacency" regarding palace security, in addition to only a vague chain of command regarding palace security. The Home Secretary at the time, William Whitehall, told MPs in the Commons (on 12th July 1982) that human error and technical issues were to blame for the intrusion. The break-in occurred despite "recent security reviews" and then-existing security measures, including more than 20 officers who guarded the palace 24 hours a day "various security devices, including cameras and sensors" and high walls topped with barbed wire that surrounded the 51 acre palace grounds. The Times' lead front-page story on Tuesday 13th July 1982 (titled 'Gaps in palace security thrown up by intruder') revealed that for his second break-in, Fagan climbed into the palace via an unchecked window in the offices of Vice Admiral Sir Peter Ashmore, the Master of the Household. How did Michael Fagan break into Buckingham Palace? Security systems were not sufficiently improved, leaving the palace vulnerable to a second break-in.įagan didn't meet the Queen until the second break-in at Buckingham Palace. I hadn't thought about going in there until that last second when it came into my head to do it, so I was shocked."ĭuring the first incident, Fagan was spotted by a maid called Sarah Carter, who raised the alarm, but he still managed to evade capture. I eventually found a door and walked out into the back gardens, climbed over the wall and walked down the Mall, looking back and thinking 'ooh'. In the same interview (via The Independent), he said of the first break-in: "It was harder to get out than get in.
It was like Goldilocks and the Three Bears I tried one throne and was like 'this one's too soft'." He also sat on royal thrones: "I was loving it.
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