Queen assassination bid was covered up
AN ATTEMPT to kill the Queen on her visit to New Zealand in 1981 was covered up by police, declassified intelligence papers have confirmed.
Detectives are to launch a probe after the files shed new light on Christopher Lewis’s bid to assassinate the monarch cions of a cover-up. Rumours of the as her limo passed through Dunedin. attempt by the 17-year-old to shoot the
It is believed that authorities Queen, as she visited the South concealed the teenager’s Island city of Dunedin on attempt as they did not want October 14, have previously to deter the royals from featured in a book and in visiting the country again. newspaper articles.
Police reportedly told But files obtained by New media at the time that the Zealand news website Stuff sound had been a large sign have now confirmed that falling over, rather than a police and onlookers heard gunshot. Lewis, who died in “what they took to be a shot”. 1997, was not charged with The files were released
With Philip on tour treason or attempted under an Official Information treason but was convicted of a much Act request to the country’s Security lesser offence, which added to suspi- Intelligence Service. An SIS file said
PRINCE William is set to make the Royal Family’s first official visit to the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
His historic tour of the Middle East this summer will also include visits to Israel and Jordan.
The trip will be the most sensitive William has made and will involve a massive security operation. The Duke of the possibility of a firearm being discharged in the vicinity of the Queen was highly likely. It added that a .22 rifle with a discharged cartridge in the breech was recovered by police from the fifth floor of the building Lewis had chosen.
The angle of fire would have made it difficult to hit the Queen as buildings largely screened her from view, although she was visible briefly on four occasions, the papers stated.
After a former Dunedin detective went public in 1997 about the attempt, an SIS memo the same year claimed Lewis tried to kill the Queen but did not have a sufficiently high-powered rifle or
Gloucester visited St John eye clinic in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, which covers the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, in 2007 but it was not an official visit.
Prince William with wife Kate suitable vantage point to be successful. After the kill bid, Lewis eventually went on to commit a series of robberies and was charged with murder. He committed suicide in prison.
Yesterday a New Zealand police spokeswoman said: “Given the interest in this historic matter, the police commissioner has asked the deputy commissioner national operations to oversee an examination by current staff of the relevant case file.
“Given the passage of time, it is anticipated this examination will take some time. New Zealand police will share the outcome once it has been completed.”
Given the interest in this historic matter, we’ll review the case file
POLICE SPOKESWOMAN
ON OPENING NEW INQUIRY
And Prince Charles went to the funerals of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and former Israeli president Shimon Peres in 1995 and 2016 respectively but they were not considered part of an official tour.