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A Teen Tried To Shoot Queen Elizabeth In 1981, Intelligence Report Says
New Zealand police say they are re-examining an apparent assassination attempt against Queen Elizabeth II. Declassified documents from New Zealand's intelligence service, newly released to an investigative journalist at the news website Stuff, indicate that there may have been a cover-up after teenager Christopher Lewis fired at the queen's motorcade in Dunedin. At the time, officials suggested to journalists that the bang of Lewis' gun was a sign falling over or firecrackers going off.
"Lewis did indeed originally intend to assassinate the queen, however did not have a suitable vantage point from which to fire, nor a sufficiently high-powered rifle for the range from the target," one declassified memo states.
[...] The 17-year-old was never charged with attempted murder or with treason, according to the news investigation.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by nobu_the_bard on Monday March 05 2018, @03:41PM (9 children)
An assassination from 37 years ago was not successful!!
The assassin was incompetent.
Police did their jobs quickly and contained the threat.
Police and security forces avoided mass panic. He was charged with something matching what he actually accomplished.
They kept an eye on the guy for future problems.
After awhile they declassified the information when it was no longer useful to keep classified.
This sounds pretty much like what they're supposed to be doing to me.
If anything, I could criticize how long they kept the information classified or that they weren't a little more aggressive with pursuing him for his non-assassination-related crimes before he decided to do some regular old fashioned murder, but I haven't read enough detail to be sure about my judging them on those points.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Monday March 05 2018, @05:23PM (5 children)
According to another article [metro.co.uk] on the case, that included sending him away on all-expense-paid vacations (taxpayer expense) when the Queen came to town, just to make sure he didn't go try to kill her again, which would be bad for tourism.
Well, mostly.
(Score: 2, Troll) by Bot on Monday March 05 2018, @05:48PM
I have a cunning plan:
> become a resident in rome
> fake an assassination attempt against the pope
> have police sending you on vacation every week
> no ???
> PROFIT!!!
the only problem I foresee is the current pope being Francis, so you must take care having no actual Catholics discover your attempt and helping you out...
Account abandoned.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by vux984 on Monday March 05 2018, @06:08PM (3 children)
"According to another article [metro.co.uk] on the case, that included sending him away on all-expense-paid vacations (taxpayer expense) "
A couple grand for a 'vacation'; vs assigning a security detail to keep a close eye on him. A bit ass-backwards for justice, but probably quite a pragmatic and economically efficient solution.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Monday March 05 2018, @07:23PM (2 children)
One might hope that with the Queen's life hanging in the balance there was a security detail involved and not simply a travel agent.
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Monday March 05 2018, @08:23PM (1 child)
As long as they make sure he gets on the plane, and gets to his destination. They don't need round the clock surveillance, in 3 shifts, if he's on an island a thousand miles away from the action. Its not like he's a crafy super-criminal; he's an incompetent nutter. Get him far enough away and just keep tabs on him.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday March 06 2018, @02:30AM
They sent him to Great Barrier Island. [wikipedia.org]
It's in the Hauraki Gulf, so not far from the largest New Zealand city, Auckland. Too far to swim however, and if the police decided you should have a nice holiday, you would probably be stuck there until they came and got you.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by PartTimeZombie on Monday March 05 2018, @09:02PM
I am acquainted with the lawyer defending him when he died in prison in 1997.
In fact he committed suicide by electrocuting himself using the lawyer's spare TV, loaned to him while he was held on remand.
The lawyer told me that Christopher Lewis may have been the most brilliant person he has ever met, although he had some terrible mental health problems which went largely undiagnosed and untreated.
I think he was being tried for murder, so not a nice person, all things considered.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 06 2018, @07:37AM (1 child)
Not sure if they did such a good job of keeping an eye on him:
But I guess not all nutjobs who claim to have tried to kill the Queen should be prosecuted for murder. Might actually encourage more nutjobs to try it.
(Score: 3, Informative) by qzm on Tuesday March 06 2018, @08:35AM
https://tvnz.co.nz/content/70975/2591764.xhtml [tvnz.co.nz]
You may want to read this first, before you get too sure of the facts.
Basically the police paid a known associate, who was a convicted (quite horrible..) murder $30,000 to testify that Lewis did it.
Now, who knows, but that was pretty much the whole evidence.