By Stephen Wright
Last updated at 12:07 AM on 23rd December 2010
Royalty protection officers were warned by a police colleague not to drive down Regent Street 15 minutes before Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall were attacked by a baying mob, the Daily Mail can reveal.
A police sergeant told a member of the couple’s protection team that the area surrounding the road should be avoided because up to 200 thugs were in close proximity.
But the advice – logged in official police records – was not followed and Charles and Camilla’s royal limousine was driven straight into a splinter group of anarchists who had attended the student protests against the raising of tuition fees.
Danger: Camilla and Charles betray their fear during the attack
Camilla was jabbed in the ribs by one protester and their car vandalised during the terrifying incident, regarded as the worst royal security lapse for decades.
Details of the apparently unheeded warning are disclosed in an urgent internal Scotland Yard report, which has been handed to the Home Secretary, Theresa May.
The report was written by Met Commander Ian Quinton and, according to sources, it pulls no punches about who was to blame for the fiasco.
There are no plans to make it public but a security source said: ‘If the Quinton report was ever published, it would make extremely uncomfortable reading.’
The most shocking revelation is that according to a minute-by-minute ‘decision and action’ log kept by a riot squad chief, royalty protection officers were specifically advised to avoid driving along Regent Street, Piccadilly and Haymarket in London’s West End because of concerns about a mob nearby.
Wrong turn: The royal limousine heads through the protests, which it now appears the couple's protection team were warned of but chose to ignore
The log was kept by Chief Supt Mick Johnson of the Met’s Territorial Support Group, who was ‘silver commander’, or deputy head, of policing the student demonstrations.
Chief Supt Johnson was based in a police control room in Lambeth, South London, on the night of the riots on December 9.
It was there, shortly after 7pm, that one of his trusted aides sitting nearby, Sergeant Adam Nash, received a phone call from a member of Charles and Camilla’s protection team as they prepared to drive the couple through the West End to attend the Royal Variety Performance at the Palladium.
Sergeant Nash told the royal bodyguard that although Regent Street was then clear, they should not drive along it and the surrounding area because a group of thugs were in nearby streets.
Nevertheless, the chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce headed into Regent Street at about 7.18pm.
Last night it was unclear why the advice was not acted upon. One possibility, not confirmed, was that the royal couple wanted to take that route. The revelation is a huge embarrassment to Scotland Yard chiefs and will pile pressure on the head of the Royalty Protection Squad, Commander Peter Loughborough, who has now overseen three major royal security blunders.
First was the 2003 break-in at Windsor Castle by an intruder dressed as Osama Bin Laden who gatecrashed Prince William’s 21st birthday party. The following year, a Fathers 4 Justice campaigner dressed as Batman staged a protest on the Buckingham Palace balcony. But the fiasco in Regent Street is widely regarded as the worst of the bungles.
Shock: The broken window of the royals' car. This is the third security lapse to happen on the watch of the Royal Protection Squad's commander
Camilla cowered on the floor of the vintage Rolls-Royce after an anarchist somehow managed to push a stick into the royal limousine and jab her in the ribs.
It is thought one of the highly distinctive car’s rear windows had been opened in error as protesters chanted ‘off with their heads’ and ‘Tory scum’ at the heir to the throne and his wife.
MPs have demanded a full independent inquiry, similar to the one carried out into the security blunder at Windsor Castle, but Yard chiefs insist that no such probe is necessary.
Privately, Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson is said to be ‘extremely disappointed’ about the role played in the bungle by the Royalty Protection Squad.
In the immediate aftermath of the incident, he said Regent Street had been ‘recced’ – reconnoitred – by royalty protection officers just a few minutes before the royal car arrived and it was clear.
Last night Dai Davies, former head of the Royalty Protection Squad, demanded an independent probe into the matter. He told the Mail: ‘It looks like royalty protection officers were given sound tactical advice. The big question is why was it ignored and why wasn’t an alternative route taken?’
Since the fiasco, security around Prince Charles has been massively increased.
The Yard’s watchdog, the Metropolitan Police Authority, is also investigating the riot tactics used by officers in the student demonstrations.
Last night Scotland Yard refused to comment on the Mail’s revelations.
■ Met chief Sir Paul Stephenson claimed yesterday that the first set of student riots a month before the Regent Street fiasco were the worst for nearly three decades.
Hordes of rampaging protesters smashed into Conservative Party headquarters on London’s Millbank during the November 10 protests.
Only 225 police officers had been deployed to marshal the protesters, and Sir Paul admitted his force had been taken by surprise.
But he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that one police veteran of 27 years claimed the riot was ‘the greatest sustained violence’ he had witnessed, despite having been at the 1990 Poll Tax riots and the Broadwater Farm riot in Tottenham in 1985, during which PC Keith Blakelock was murdered.
Sir Paul warned that Scotland Yard faces the most challenging time in its history, thanks to a combination of public disorder, budget cuts, the terrorism threat and the forthcoming London Olympics.
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