Reporter with fake bomb gets near Prince Harry
CTV.ca News Staff
Britain is being rocked by another royal security scare after an undercover
reporter carried a fake bomb into the elite military academy where Prince Harry
is attending.
The tabloid newspaper, The Sun, said one of its reporters was
allowed through the gates of the prestigious Sandhurst military academy by
posing as a student trying to arrange an appointment.
The journalist said he was a "warfare student", researching the causes of the
Gulf War.
He was able to spend eight hours walking around the grounds of Sandhurst.
And, at one point he returned to his car where he put together a fake bomb
made up of wires, a clock, a battery and plasticine.
Harry was at Sandhurst while all this was going on.
The Sun even printed a photo on its front page, of Harry with fellow cadets,
reportedly taken from video footage from their reporter.
Now, Britain's Defence Secretary, John Reid, is demanding an investigation
into what he termed a "serious security breach".
'No excuses'
"There are no excuses," Reid told the BBC.
And, a ministry of Defence official has also told the BBC: "We will be
implementing any changes we feel are necessary."
Last month, Harry began a 44-week officer training course.
"I am really excited. I want to get on with it and do the best job I can do,"
Harry said at the time, in a statement issued through his father's office.
The prince and 270 other new recruits face a gruelling schedule, rising
early, marching and walking to up 50 kilometres a day with a heavy pack on his
back, and digging trenches, among other things.
Cadets are also expected to polish their own shoes and do their own ironing.
They live in modest quarters, furnished with a single bed, sink and wardrobe.
They are not allowed to leave the site of the academy or wear civilian
clothing.
This latest security breach is adding to concern about the safety of the
Royal Family.
Last September, a protester dressed in a Batman costume scaled the front wall
of Buckingham Palace and perched for more than five hours on a ledge near the
balcony where the Royal Family appears on ceremonial occasions.
And in June 2003, a comedian dressed as Osama bin Laden gatecrashed Prince
William's 21st birthday party at Windsor Castle, kissing the prince on both
cheeks.
The Royal Family's public appearances are usually known in advance, and the
Queen is said to discourage security walls between her and her subjects.
PRINCE HARRY: 'IT ISN'T ME ON SECRET
TAPE'
LATEST: British royal PRINCE HARRY has slammed
reports an undercover journalist exposed the poor security around him by
secretly filming him, armed with a fake bomb - insisting someone else was
captured on the video.
The reporter, from British newspaper THE SUN, claims he wandered through the
grounds of Sandhurst Military Academy - where the 22-year-old is based - and
secretly filmed him training and studying in his bedroom, to prove the young
royal's safety is being compromised by lax security measures.
But the prince watched the footage and confirmed the star of the film is
somebody else.
A spokesman for the royal family's Clarence House office says, "Harry watched
the video and says it's not him.
"It was filmed at New College. Harry has no reason to be there. He's based at
OId College."
But a spokeswoman at The Sun says, "The footage is Prince Harry. We stand by
it 100 per cent.
"The Clarence House denial is absurd."