In one of the most high-profile security breaches in royal history, 31-year-old Michael Fagan managed to scale palace walls and make his way intoQueen Elizabeth’schambers while she slept the morning of July 9, 1982.
The infamous break-in, featured inseason 4 of Netflix’sThe Crown, reportedly followed a night of heavy drinking for the unemployed decorator, motivating him to enter Buckingham Palace, uninvited, through an unlocked window, according toThe New York Times.
Unable to make his way through the rest of the royal home, Fagan reportedly exited the window he came in, and used a drainpipe to shimmy his way to the rooftop, where he eventually accessed the Queen’s bedroom.
“They say she must have been frightened,” Fagan said, according toTown & Country. “I didn’t frighten her too much, but I was quite shocked,” he said, describing the moment he witnessed the Queen asleep in her bed.
“She used a phone on the bedside table to call security, but when nobody came, she got out of bed.”
“She said, ‘Just one minute, I’ll get someone,’ swept past me and ran out of the room, her little bare feet running across the floor,” he recalled, per the outlet.
Michael Fagan.R. Brigden/Express/Hulton Archive/Getty
“The man seemed very tense, and I said: ‘Would you like a drink?'” Wybrew recalled. “Immediately, he became more affable and replied: ‘Yes please, I’ll have a scotch.'”
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During his trial, Fagan described the palace’s security protocols as “weak,” according to the outlet, admitting he broke into Buckingham Palace twice.
“I walked straight in,” he said of the first incident a month prior, in which he claimed to have tried out several thrones. “I was surprised I wasn’t captured straight away. I could have been a rapist or something. I knew I could break the security system because it was so weak,” Fagan said.
He eventually showed himself out, according to the outlet.
Fagan was acquitted of trespass in the July 1982 incident.
Additionally, a jury found him not guilty of burglary in connection with the first break-in, the paper reports.
source: people.com
