Violent killer climbed into palace grounds
Queen was in residence as ‘Clockwork Orange’ attacker wandered around Buckingham Palace gardens
AN INTRUDER who sneaked into the grounds of Buckingham Palace this week was a convicted murderer whose crime was so savage that it was compared to the film A Clockwork Orange, it emerged yesterday.
The Queen was in residence at the palace as Denis Hennessy, 41, wandered the gardens on Thursday during a 10-minute breach of security.
When he was eventually stopped by a member of Scotland Yard’s royal protection team, he repeatedly shouted “is Ma’am in?” and told officers he was “admiring the well-kept gardens”. Yesterday he was sent back to jail for four months as magistrates heard he had been released in 2002 on licence after being convicted of the murder of Kevin Cusack in 1992. He had been under probation supervision and monitoring until 2013.
The unprovoked attack on Mr Cusack, 45, a homeless man, was at the time compared to scenes from Stanley Kubrick’s violent crime fantasy film.
On June 19 1992, Mr Cusack, who regularly begged outside Neasden station, went to sleep in an abandoned car where Hennessy attacked him with a foot-long pipe. His skull was smashed and broken fragments of his dentures were found seven feet away. Hennessy then stamped on his body until all his ribs were broken. Hennessy told the jury he had been sniffing lighter fuel and attacked Mr Cusack because he had hassled him for money.
After being freed from prison, Hennessy became a stonemason and moved into a housing association flat in Wem- bley, north London. He was said by neighbours to have in recent months sunk into depression, drink and drugs after losing his job over Christmas.
Westminster magistrates’ court was told yesterday he climbed over a 10ft wall topped with barbed wire on Hyde Park Corner at 8.37pm on Thursday.
Armed police and search dogs swept through the gardens on high alert and a helicopter was called after Hennessy broke alarm wires as he clambered up a tree. He got to within 50 yards of the palace before he was stopped. The Queen, who had earlier held a garden party, was in residence with the Duke of Edinburgh and the Duke of York.
Yesterday neighbours said that Hennessy, a “talented” stonemason, was known as “marble man” to regulars in his local pub. He was said to have looked troubled when last seen.
Mark Gallagher, 45, a carpenter from Wembley, said: “I saw him last Saturday at about 4pm by the bus stop and there was something wrong with him. He was staring into space, looking at me. He had a thousand-mile stare.” Neighbours said he was often seen drunk or smoking cannabis and played loud music all night.
One neighbour, Rachel, 27, said: “He was going through a lot. He had lost his job and was going to lose his flat.
“When he lost his job he just went a bit under because he couldn’t work.”
She said he was studying IT through the Jobcentre and spent a lot of time reading in a Brent Council library.
Another neighbour said: “His speech would be slurred.”
Hennessy pleaded guilty yesterday to one count of trespassing on a protected site and one count of criminal damage.
Howard Riddle, the chief magistrate. sentenced him to four months for trespassing and two months, to run concurrently, for damaging the alarm wires.