Ball to go to mental hospital

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33541, 23 May 1974, Page 13

Ball to go to mental hospital

(N. Z. P. A. -Reut er —Copy ri ght > LONDON, May 22. lan Ball, who tried to kidnap Princess Anne on March 20, will be confined indefinitely in a mental hospital.

The Lord Chief Justice of England (Lord Widgery) ordered the confinement of Ball, a 26-year-old Londoner who pleaded guilty today to charges of attempting to kidnap the Princess and attempting to murder her bodyguard. He also admitted attempting to murder a police constable. but pleaded not guilty to trying to murder a journalist and the Royal chauffeur.

Ball, who in a previous hearing was described by his defence counsel as a schizoid, made his pleas in a loud and clear voice at the Old Bailey when his trial began on charges arising from the attack on the Royal car near Buckingham Palace. Tight security was in force for the trial.

The police did not proceed with an earlier charge alleging that Ball assaulted Princess Anne, and attempted unlawfully and injuriously to imprison her and detain her against her will m some secret and private place. Ball denied trying to murder the Royal driver, Mr Alexander Callender, and a passing journalist, Mr Brian McConnell, but pleaded guilty to lesser charges of wounding them with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

The Attorney-General (Mr Samuel Silkin) told the jury in opening the prosecution’s case: “It is a story which you may think unbelievable — one of those very rare cases where, quite honestly, fact is stranger than fiction. "There can be no doubt that the defendant, Ball, conceived over many years a horrifying plan which he prepared with almost obsessive care and detail to kidnap single-handed in the heart of London a member of the Royal Family.” In his statements to police, Mr Silkin said, Ball had made it clear that if necessary he would shoot to kill.