Jubilee: Former Queen's guard member slams Republican uproar

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Thursday marks the beginning of a four-day-long celebration of Queen Elizabeth II’s 70 years on the throne. The weekend will include the Trooping the Colour parade and a concert featuring Elton John plus Queen and Adam Lambert. Britons across the nation are also expected to hold street parties and other celebrations. However, Philip Grindell, a former Metropolitan Police detective and founder/CEO of Defuse Global, an organisation which protects and advises some of the UK’s most recognizable public figures, told Express.co.uk that the Jubilee may be threatened by a number of “fixated” individuals.

Mr Grindell said there are a number of individuals who “have delusions that they are actually the legitimate members of the Royal Family, have some affinity with the Royal Family or are just fixated with them”.

The security expert said that there will be a “huge security protocol” around these individuals as they sometimes attempt to “disrupt royal events or gain entry to them”.

Mr Grindell said these individuals are known to an organisation called FTAC, which stands for the Fixated Threat Assessment Centre.

FTAC is a joint police/mental health unit which was set up in October 2006 by the Home Office, the Department of Health and the Metropolitan police to assess and manage the risk to members of the Royal Family, politicians and public figures from obsessive individuals.

Mr Grindell said that many of these people have “significant” mental health issues and are known to “the police officers that work around the palaces and the protection officers that work closely with the Royal Family”.

According to The Mirror, there are currently 170 figures known to be harassing the Royal Family.

Some 10 are logged at the highest danger level, while 128 of them pose a moderate risk and 32 pose a low risk.

Over the years, the Royal Family’s lives have been disrupted by a number of fixated individuals.

In 1982, Michael Fagan famously managed to break into Buckingham Palace and get into the Queen’s bedroom, where he had a chat with the Monarch

Mr Fagan told police at the time that he had broken into the palace because he was in love with the Queen.

In 1986, Alfred Adcock, a man who was fixated on Princess Diana and had erotomanic delusions, indecently assaulted her at a public function.

More recently, on Christmas Day 2021, a 19-year old man wielding a crossbow broke into Windsor Castle.

Following the incident, video footage was released of a man stating that he was going to “assassinate the Queen”.

He said: “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for what I’ve done and what I will do. I will attempt to assassinate Elizabeth, Queen of the Royal Family. This is revenge for those who have died in the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

“It is also revenge for those who have been killed, humiliated and discriminated on because of their race.”

The man was subsequently sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

Mr Grindell added that as well as people who are fixated on the Royal Family, the Jubilee celebrations could also face threats from anti-monarchists.

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He said that these individuals may attempt to disrupt the event or hold up placards “defaming the Royal Family”.

However, Mr Grindell said that the real issue with this is that the anarchists may become the targets of royalists which could cause fights to take place.

Mr Grindell said that although keeping the event safe will be a “huge operation”, it will be one that “the Met are used to dealing with”.

He added: “There is a dedicated office for dealing with such events and they have a huge level of expertise and professionalism.

“The planning for this will have been going on for weeks, if not months.”

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