Fagan freed

Press, 21 January 1983, Page 6

Fagan freed

NZPA-Reuter Liverpool Michael Fagan, who broke into Buckingham Palace and sat on the Queen’s bed pouring out his troubles, has been freed from the high-security mental hospital which has held him since October. A health tribunal ruled yesterday that Fagan, aged 32. was still mentally ill but need no longer be detained. Fagan, an unemployed labourer upset at personal problems including the break-up of his marriage, entered the Palace twice last June and July. The second time, he found the Queen's bedroom and sat barefoot talking with her for 10 minutes until she managed to call a footman. According to one newspaper, Fagan’s first words to the Queen were “You are very beautiful and I love you very, very much.” Although Fagan's nocturnal visits caused a scandal over faults in security surrounding the Royal Family, he was not prosecuted for them.

A court convicted him in October on a separate charge of taking a car and committed him indefinitely to the mental hospital as a patient. The tribunal said that

under the law it had to release Fagan, if it was not in the interests of his health and safety or for the protection of other persons that he should be detained any longer. Two Conservative members of Parliament demanded that the Home Secretary, Mr William Whitelaw, explain the decision. One of them, Keith Stainton, said: “The general public will be bewildered and aghast.” Fagan’s lawyer, Peter Edwards, said that his client had expressed tremendous regret at the time for his action and had repeated this at yesterday’s hearing. Fagan was overjoyed that his appeal for discharge had been allowed. The tribunal appealed for the news media to leave Fagan alone to re-establish himself in society. But reporters called at the North London home of Fagan's parents, and Mr Edwards said that newspapers had approached him about buying Fagan’s story. “Michael has not been looking for any offers. I think he is confused about things and just wants to be normal.”