A convicted murderer who was arrested in the gardens of Buckingham Palace and pleaded guilty to trespassing, was jailed for four months in the UK on Friday.
Denis Hennessy, 41, who was sentenced to life imprisonment, was out on license following the murder of a homeless man in 1992, the Westminster Magistrates’ Court was told.
Hennessy was still serving his sentence, but was allowed to live in the community. He cut his right hand climbing over the perimeter wall of Queen’s London home on Wednesday evening, before being arrested by Scotland Yard officers. He admitted to one count of trespass on a protected site and one count on criminal damage.
During police interviewing, he told them he “walked through the gardens admiring the view”. He was sentenced to four months for trespassing and two months, to run concurrently, for damaging the wires of the alarm system.
Armed police, search dogs, and a helicopter swept through the gardens on high alert after Hennessy broke alarm wires, as he clambered up a tree and over the wall. The Queen was in the palace at the time of the intrusion, with husband Duke of Edinburgh and younger son Prince Andrew, the Duke of York.
Not The First Time
There have been numerous security breaches at Buckingham Palace in the past. Two in particular have been notorious.
In 2013, two men were arrested on suspicion of burglary, one in the grounds and one inside an area of the palace that is open to public during the day.
In 1982, an unemployed man named Michael Fagan managed to climb up a drainpipe and sneak into the queen’s private chambers while she was still in bed.
The Queen spent 10 minutes chatting with the intruder, before calling for help when he asked for a cigarette.
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