Emma Cowing: how was Prince Charles put at such risk during protests and will police heads roll?

Published on Saturday 11 December 2010 11:28

THE FOOTAGE is short and shocking. On a cold London night, a 1977 Rolls Royce Phantom VI creeps up Regent Street, the Prince of Wales's standard clearly visible on the roof.

Immediately, angry protesters surge round the vehicle. The chant of "off with their heads" can be heard repeatedly. An Associated Press photographer's camera flash captures a glimpse of a terrified Duchess of Cornwall before a lone policeman, struggling against the seething crowd, tries vainly to block the window of the car. Finally, the vehicle speeds off down the street, and the screen goes black. As the Duchess later told a well-wisher: "There's a first time for everything".

Thursday night's incident, in which protesters threw paint and battered a car carrying the heir to the throne and his wife to the Royal Variety Performance, smashing a window and prodding the Duchess of Cornwall in the ribs with a stick, is the biggest Royal security breach in years. After a day of violent protests in London against the rise in student tuition fees in which 12 police officers and 43 protesters were injured, the incident provided the world with a haunting image of a king in waiting assaulted by angry, marauding citizens. And while the violence highlights the depth of anger at the policies of the coalition government, it begs the question: how was a security lapse of such enormous proportions allowed to happen in the first place?

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson has described it as a "shocking incident". However he was also quick to leap to the defence of both police and royal protection officers, claiming that "minutes beforehand the route was clear. It was a difficult night".

Yet reports have emerged - denied by the Met - that royal protection officers assigned to the couple were using radios on a different channel from those patrolling the student riots, meaning they received no warning that protesters were blocking their route. But whether or not communication systems were working during the incident, questions are nevertheless being asked about why, when the demonstrations had been taking place in central London for hours, and in these days of heightened security and terrorist risks, the convoy was allowed to pass through the area at all. Just what was a vintage state Rolls Royce with huge windows, carrying the heir to the throne and his wife, doing in the middle of a riot in the first place?

The job of a royal protection officer is far from easy.

Highly trained, armed with 9mm Glocks and allowed to open fire only when the person they are protecting is being threatened with deadly force, they perform, say those who have worked with them, an impossible task."They've only got to get it wrong once and it's an absolute disaster," says one senior security source. "Nobody looks at the 999 times they get it right. They have to bring together two very conflicting issues and that is high visibility and high security. The Royal Family have always chosen to say 'we've got to be seen, we've got to be visible, that's our job', and there's a very delicate balance between that visibility and being accessible to people and being safe. That's awfully, awfully hard to do."

And then there is the relationship with their charges. Brian Paddick, the former Metropolitan Police deputy assistant commissioner, claimed this weekend that Prince Charles had been warned by bodyguards not to attend the Royal Variety Performance on Thursday night. However, he had insisted on going, saying that protesters would not stop him.

"They would have had several options," says one security expert who has trained royal protection officers in the past. "They could have said, 'look Sir, I don't think we should go', and the chances are the Prince would have wanted to go - it's the Royal Variety Show and he needs to be seen. So maybe that's not an option.

"The next is to go in a totally unremarkable car, incognito. And the third is to have the full convoy, not only with motorbikes but with several cars and an armoured vehicle. But that costs a lot of money and maybe takes a while to organise. So they've had to compromise. They've had a very small convoy with a great big vehicle in it which stands out. They chose the worst of the options."

Pressure is now growing on Commander Peter Loughborough to quit as head of the royal protection squad as a result of the incident, with one senior Scotland Yard source quoted as saying: "This was an appalling lapse of security which could have been easily avoided. The buck stops with him. He has a lot of questions to answer about this failure."

Loughborough is said to be a favourite with the Royals, despite coming under fire seven years ago when comedian Aaron Barschak sneaked into Windsor Castle during Prince William's 21st birthday party, and though he is unlikely to go immediately, questions over key decisions made on the night will ultimately, in the inevitable internal investigation into what happened, need to be answered by him.

Writing this weekend, Ken Wharfe, a former royal protection officer who once guarded Princess Diana, was critical of the choice of vehicle. "The Prince's Rolls Royce Silver Phantom is old, heavy, has a poor turning circle and has no protective qualities," he wrote."It is also a ceremonial car, complete with the Prince of Wales's standard on the roof, which makes it a focal point for militant anger."

The question also remains as to why the Royal couple were left so exposed and vulnerable, separated from their protection detail. Although a royal protection officer was in the front seat next to the driver, the other protection vehicle was separated from the car, allowing protesters easy access and making the pair easy prey.

"Its hopeless having one armed protection officer in the front seat. In some parts of the world, the armed officer would have come out with a gun and opened fire, but it wouldn't be considered on the streets of London," says the senior security source. "The armed officer is there to protect the VIP from deadly force."

In 1974, Princess Anne was assaulted by a man with a gun while driving in a royal car down The Mall. Her royal protection officer was later awarded the George Cross for his bravery, and the incident brought about a change in direction in royal protection, with the decision made that one officer was not enough when senior royals were in transit, even if they were travelling incognito.

Says the security expert who has trained royal protection officers: "You need the police within very close striking distance. You need two other cars for back up, certainly at least one. Whenever you see a senior royal on a walkabout, there are between four to half a dozen people ready and with them. It's become standard. Something has gone seriously wrong here with the other vehicle."

Deep inside the bowels of New Scotland Yard is a special events command room. Run by the Metropolitan Police, it co-ordinates the police reaction to incidents such as the demonstration on Thursday. In charge is a Gold Commander, a senior officer traditionally of assistant commissioner level, who has an overview of everything that's happening within that area at any one time.

"The royal convoy would have been in that senior officer's line of sight," says the senior security source. "They would be liaising on royal movements, keeping an eye on the demonstration, asking where is the Prime Minister and anyone else who could be a target."

So why, given the amount of monitoring and the number of police on the streets, was the royal car allowed to drive into the middle of it?

"What happens in these cases is there is an advance recce car that goes through a few minutes before," says the senior security source.

"Where they got caught out was the rapid movement and the mobility of a splinter group of protesters," explains the source. "They are incredibly mobile, they were able to move easily away from the demo route down side streets, and a road that had been clear just a few minutes previously now was not.And of course, when the protesters saw the royal vehicle, they must have thought all their Christmasses had come at once."

The full story of exactly what happened on Thursday night may take months to emerge. A criminal investigation has been launched in an attempt to identify the protesters causing trouble, and the Met will be asking serious questions about how to deal with such events in the future. As a police force it has come under considerable fire recently, with criticism over its heavy handedness at one student demo only to give way to outrage over the breach of security that allowed the attack on Tory party headquarters in Millbank in October.

"This kind of demonstrating is relatively new," says the senior security source. "These raiding parties and their tactics is something completely different from what has been seen before, and there will need to be decisions made on how to deal with that in the future."

The Met has also come under criticism for tactics such as 'kettling' - containing sometimes thousands of protesters in a small area and letting them out only in small numbers - and the use of mounted police, with one student group criticising its heavy handedness.

"They're constantly reappraising," says the senior security source. "It's not some cosy situation - they're constantly asking themselves very hard questions about how they do things. It's very difficult for anybody really to sit back in hindsight and say how differently they could have done it. They were faced with a very large crowd with this lethal mix of anarchists who obviously had a plan."

Ultimately however, those who may suffer the most as a result of this most extraordinary incident, are the beleaguered tax payers.

"The royals are under huge pressure to keep the budget down because every policeman who says 'ho ho ho' in their direction is charged for, and then shows up in the royal budget at the end of the year," says the security expert who has trained royal protection officers.

"But after what's happened you can be sure that in the next few months the protection level will be heightened. Security will be swarming all over them. And that, unfortunately, is going to cost."