January 16, 2014
LONDON (AFP) - A British man was jailed for 16 months on Wednesday for trying to storm into Buckingham Palace armed with a knife to complain to Queen Elizabeth II about his welfare payments.
David Belmar, 44, had to be tackled to the ground by police after he jumped over a vehicle barrier at the north entrance of the monarch's official London residence in October.
A judge at Southwark Crown Court sentenced Belmar to 16 months in jail for possession of a bladed weapon and six months, to run concurrently, for trespassing on a protected site.
Belmar, from north London, pleaded guilty to both offences.
An earlier court hearing was told that Belmar had a history of mental illness and a fixation with the queen, who was not in residence at the palace at the time of the offence.
He had been on incapacity benefit for ten years but it was stopped after an assessment in September.
The incident came after a series of security incidents at Buckingham Palace, the main London residence of the royal family.
In September 2013 a man who scaled a fence to get into the palace was arrested on suspicion of burglary.
A few days afterwards, with security on high alert, jittery royal protection officers challenged the queen's third child Prince Andrew in the gardens of Buckingham Palace.
The most serious breach at the palace came in 1982 when unemployed man Michael Fagan got inside the queen's private chambers while she was in bed.
Fagan, who had climbed over the palace walls and scaled a drainpipe, spent 10 minutes talking to the sovereign before she was able to raise the alarm.
