Papers confirm attempt to kill Queen
Declassified secret documents have confirmed an assassination attempt on Queen Elizabeth II in Dunedin, and potentially implicate New Zealand police in a ‘‘coverup’’.
On October 14, 1981, teen criminal Christopher John Lewis hid in a deserted toilet cubicle on the fifth floor of a building overlooking the Royal parade. He wanted to assassinate the Queen but his gunshot missed. Incredibly, although the 17-year-old was arrested he was never charged with attempted murder and media, who heard the shot, were told it was a falling sign. Why?
The New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) has now released previously classified information to The Press after The Snowman and the Queen series was published in January.
The NZSIS documents include the file Possible Attempt on the Life of Queen Elizabeth II by National Imperial Guerilla Army, which is dated November 9, 1981 and marked ‘‘SECRET’’.
The documents, released under an Official Information Act (OIA) request to the intelligence agency, reveal unnamed NZSIS officials were investigating the assassination attempt, after initial media reports questioning whether an attempt had been made.
The documents confirm police officers and members of the public heard ‘‘what they took to be a shot’’. Police initially downplayed the incident, telling local and international media the sound of what appeared to be a gunshot was, in fact, a council sign falling over.
It was later revealed the then 17-year-old Christopher Lewis fired a shot as the Queen exited her motorcade at the Otago Museum on the afternoon of October 14, 1981.
An NZSIS official was given access to police reports, including interview notes, after the arrest of Christopher Lewis and two of his teenage off-siders.
The newly released NZSIS file references ‘‘two persons who may well be fictitious whom Lewis would only describe as Snowman and Polar Bear respectively’’.
According to Lewis’ police interviews he commanded the National Imperial Guerilla Army, alongside a higher ranker person known as the Polar Bear while The Snowman was the leader who ordered the fledgling army ’’to terrorise Dunedin’’.
While police expressed doubts over Lewis’ claims over the existence of the shadowy pair, the NZSIS investigated the allegations.
NZSIS had ‘‘no knowledge’’ of the National Imperial Guerilla Army organisation, and did not believe it was linked to the rightwing National Front movement, which was pro-monarchy. ‘‘They are a figment of my imagination,’’ Lewis later conceded to police.
The NZSIS documents appear to vindicate claims made by Tom Lewis, a former Dunedin detective who went public about the assassination attempt in 1997.
After he went public it prompted another memo from NZSIS – also released under the OIA – to an undisclosed recipient.
‘‘(Christopher) Lewis did indeed originally intend to assassinate the Queen, however, did not have a suitable vantage point from which to fire, nor a sufficiently high-powered rifle for the range from the target,’’ the memo concluded.
Tom Lewis, no relation to Christopher Lewis, doubted the truth would ever come out. ‘‘It will be like ripping the scab off . . . so much pus would come out.’’
After the incident police told media that Christopher Lewis, who was never charged with treason or attempted treason, shot at a road.
He was sentenced to three years jail.