‘Nazi secret agents tried to blow up Queen’

A BARRISTER sparked a major security scare by claiming Nazi spies wanted to blow up the Queen and the London Olympics with a nuclear bomb, a court heard.

The Queen was said to have been a target in bomb plot. Picture: Getty

Michael Shrimpton is accused of making a hoax bomb threat when he claimed shadowy German spies had stolen nuclear warheads from the sunken Russian submarine Kursk and smuggled one into the country.

The 57-year-old called the office of former defence secretary Philip Hammond to warn him of the plot in 2012, months before the Games were to begin.

He claimed the intelligence came from Russian agencies passed to him through a “back channel” network that included a friend of the Pope.

He also called the office of Aylesbury MP David Lidington, but was arrested.

Prosecutor Alan Blake told Southwark Crown Court: “The prosecution allege that in April 2012 when preparations for the Games were at an advanced stage, Mr Shrimpton passed information about an attack to persons in high authority. The information was extraordinary and dramatic.

“In essence, Mr Shrimpton announced that a nuclear weapon had been stolen from the sunken Russian submarine, the Kursk, that such a nuclear weapon a number of years ago had been smuggled and stored in the UK, and was being stored in a London hospital in preparation to be used during the Olympic Games.

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“With the benefit of hindsight, the information may seem outlandish, perhaps even laughable. But before being too dismissive, do recall the position in 2012 before those calls were made.”

Jurors were reminded how surface-to-air missiles were stationed on the roof of an apartment block close to the site and there were fears terrorists may have infiltrated G4S, which provided security for the Games.

He said: “The first communication of that threat was made not to the police, or a terrorism hotline, but to Barry Burton, who was the principal private secretary to defence secretary Philip Hammond.

“Mr Shrimpton left a message to his office at the House of Commons. It was during a return call that Mr Shrimpton communicated a threat. The information that regarded the alleged nuclear bomb was repeated the following day.

“It is the prosecution’s case that the information provided by Mr Shrimpton was false and that when he communicated those threats he didn’t honestly or genuinely believe that they were true, or rather he believed they were false.”

In his first message, Shrimpton said he was a barrister and had received the information from “credible European sources”. During the 20-minute call, the barrister claimed to have friends in the British political establishment to add to his credibility, the court heard.

“[He said] one nuclear warhead was being brought into the UK on a submarine or nuclear container ship. The weapon was being transported on an ambulance in order to mask the radioactive signal and [taken to a] hospital – possibly Newham.

“He told Mr Burton the weapon in the UK contained uranium and plutonium and was going to be used to attack Her Majesty the Queen or the stadium.”

The official suspected the account was a fiction, but passed the warning on to organisers and the police as a precaution.

The following day, Mr Shrimpton telephoned Aylesbury Conservative Association to pass the “threat” on to Mr Lidington but was arrested at his home in Wendover in Buckinghamshire the same day.

During questioning, Shrimp–ton claimed the bomb had been smuggled into the country by the Deutsches Verteidigungs Dienst, or the German Defence Service, which was a Nazi-era unit that had infiltrated MI5, MI6 and GCHQ.

“When questioned about the sources who had provided him with this information Mr Shrimpton said he wouldn’t name them. There was someone in Munich who occasionally has lunch with the Pope and a retired air marshal.

“The information had originally come from the GRU, the Russian Defence Agency, but had come to him through a third party.

“He denied that he had acted with malice.”

The barrister, who is representing himself in court, denies two counts of communicating false information with intent.

The trial continues.

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