Palace Security Breach: Fake Priest Reportedly Spent Night With Queen’s Guard at Windsor Castle

A police investigation has been launched after a man dressed as a priest reportedly breached palace security and spent the evening with the Queen’s Royal guards in barracks just yards from Windsor Castle.

Last week, police were called after a man snuck his way into the Victoria Barracks, which is located around 500 yards from the Queen’s primary residence at Windsor Castle.

While the Queen was not in the castle at the time of the  incident, as she has travelled to her estate at Sandringham for Easter, the security breach is of particular concern given the upcoming Platinum Jubilee celebrations, which will honour her seventy years of service to the British people.

According to a report from The Sun newspaper, on Wednesday of last week, the unidentified man had dressed as a priest and snuck into the barracks, which house the Coldstream Guards, who perform the ceremonial changing of the guard at the castle. He reportedly spent the evening drinking and dining with officials, without once being asked to present any identification.

A source told the paper: “The guy turned up at the gate in the evening and said his name was Father Cruise and claimed to be a friend of the battalion’s Padre Rev Matt Coles… He was invited in and offered something to eat in the Officer’s Mess.”

“Within a couple of hours, he was drinking with the officers in the bar and telling them stories of how he had served in Iraq,” the source added. “He was telling lots of tall stories and the lads were enjoying his banter and having a few drinks.”

“This is just an extraordinary breach of security.”

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Questions only began to arrive the following morning after the man reportedly made questionable statements surrounding his alleged time in uniform, making claims of having undergone organ transplants after serving as an ejector-seat test pilot.

He was reportedly then escorted from the premises just hours before the Queen returned home from her Easter holiday.

A spokesman from the Army, of which the Coldstream Guards are a part of, said: “The Army takes this breach of security extremely seriously and it will be thoroughly investigated as a matter of priority.”

Thames Valley Police have launched an investigation as well, with a spokesman confirming they were called and had “removed the intruder from the barracks”.

It is not the first instance of intruders breaking into Royal properties. In 1982, Michael Fagan successfully scaled the walls Buckingham Palace and actually broke into the Queen’s bedchamber.

Though the incident was fictionalised by the Netflix series The Crown to have involved the Queen holding a long conversation with the man, Fagan later told The Telegraph that she quickly escaped from the room after saying to him: “I’ll be back in a minute”.

Fagan was subsequently arrested and spent three months in a psychiatric facility.

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