Is Ma’am in?
What convicted murderer asked as he was seized by police just yards from Queen and Duke of Edinburgh
AN INTRUDER who sparked a police lock-down at Buckingham Palace when he scaled a 10ft wall is a convicted murderer. Denis Hennessy, 41, wandered through the royal gardens for up to ten minutes, before asking armed officers, ‘Is Ma’am in?’
The unemployed Irishman was oblivious to the security alert he had caused as the Queen, Duke of Edinburgh and Duke of York were rushed to safety.
After the drunken trespasser was confronted just 50 yards from the palace, investigators were shocked to discover his past conviction – which saw him jailed for life at the age of 18.
He had bludgeoned homeless man Kevin Cusack to death with a 10in iron bar outside a north London fish and chip shop, in an attack compared to scenes from the ultra-violent film A Clockwork Orange.
One detective said the case was the worst he had seen in his 27-year career.
Hennessy was found guilty by a jury at the Old Bailey.
The killer appears to have ‘gone straight’ after his release, but fell back into petty crime, alcoholism and drug use after losing his job last November.
Last night, a former police chief said the intrusion should serve as a reminder to officers of how vulnerable the Royal Family are.
Retired chief superintendent Dai Davies – who was appointed head of royal protection at Scotland Yard in 1995 – said: ‘Sadly drunkenness and climbing fences are a common factor … unless you put up sentries armed with searchlights at various locations, very occasionally incidents like this can happen.’
The security breach took place after Hennessy, a former stonemason, signed on at a benefits office and drank ‘four or five’ cans of cider on Wednesday evening.
As he walked past the rear of the palace, he decided to scale the fence topped with motion sensors and security wire.
The commotion alerted officers monitoring the estate, who raced to stop him.
But Hennessy was able to get within about 50 yards of the pal- ace’s summer house before he was confronted by armed officers who arrested him.
Tom Nicholson, prosecuting at Westminster magistrates’ court yesterday, said: ‘ He kept asking, “Is Ma’am in?” He didn’t seem surprised at the point he was arrested.’
Hennessy caused ‘significant inconvenience’ to the royals, Mr Nicholson said, adding that a ‘full-scale alert contingency was implemented’ with a helicopter and extra officers drafted in.
After 24 hours in custody, Hennessy was sober enough to be
‘Determined effort to enter’
interviewed, and apologised to police. He said he spent up to ten minutes ‘admiring the view’ and praised the Royal Family on the neat gardens. He told his lawyer: ‘I’ve done a lot of silly things in my life and this is definitely up there with the best of them.’
Hennessy claimed he did not see signs that the palace is a ‘ protected site’. Police were forced to conduct a fingertip search of the grounds over fears he may have left a bomb.
Yesterday, Hennessy admitted trespassing on a protected site and damaging security wire worth up to £2,000. Sentencing him to four months in jail, Chief Magistrate Howard Riddle said he did not believe Hennessy’s claim that he did not know he should not be there.
He added: ‘What stands out to me is he made the most determined effort to enter Buckingham Palace gardens … He knew precisely where he was and it is reported he asked if the Queen was in the residence … we simply don’t know why he was there and that makes it a matter of very considerable concern.’
The court heard Hennessy was jailed in 1993, released in 2002 and placed under supervision by probation until 2013. He had no other convictions until earlier this year, when he stole a bottle of wine from a shop. He remains on bail for burglary.
Neighbours of his one-bedroom housing association flat in Wembley, north-west London, said he lived alone in squalor.
One said his wife, Linda Davies, had died of cancer around 2005, which led to him throwing out his children and giving up the family home. They said he was known for coming home drunk before smoking cannabis and playing loud music at night.
The most high-profile breach at the palace was in 1982 when Michael Fagan broke into the Queen’s bedroom, talking to her for ten minutes.