Destiny stone was broken during raid

The lawman who led the plot to take back the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey 70 years ago, has told how the symbolic rock broke as he wrested it from the Coronation Chair.

Retired QC Ian Hamilton said he had no regrets as the accidental breakage made the stone easier to smuggle out of England.

Hamilton, now 94, was one of four students who famously stole the “Stone of Scone” on Christmas Eve, 1950. It was later returned to London.

The Stone was used for nearly 500 years by Scottish monarchs. It was taken from Scone, near Perth, by England’s King Edward I in 1296 and built in to his own throne.

It was officially returned to Scotland in 1996 and installed at Edinburgh Castle.