Fugitive's plot failed

Press, 12 May 1987, Page 1

Fugitive's plot failed

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NEIL CLARKSON

The fugitive, Christopher John Lewis, failed in a bld toassassinate the Queen in Dunedin only because two policemen choee to stand near his vantage point, according to a former detective sergeant. Lewis, still hunted by thje police in the nigged Buller Gorge, plotted to kill the Queen during a walk among the public in the Octagon. Carrying a .22 calibre rifle in a bag, Lewis stationed himself near the entrance to the Mission building, which overlooks the heart of Dunedin. “He was to fire downhill in a direct line,” according to Mr Tom Lewis, who left the police last year. - ’’ Mr Lewis, who is no relation and now an insurance broker in Perth, estimates Lewis would have come within 40m of the Queen. “He would only have got time to let off a couple of shots. He mentioned the fact she would be wearing a hat and was rather short.”

Lewis made the revelations to the Dunedin police while being interviewed in connection with an armed robbery carried out in military uniforms. He claimed he “freaked out” when two uniformed police on Royal Tour duty hesitated for a short while outside the building before moving on. Lewis aborted the attempt but made another; in which a shot was fired some distance from the Queen, while she was walking in the Dunedin Museum grounds.

He gained access to a building owned by the Otago University Medical School overlooking the museum.

“He got up there and then let off a shot aimed at the museum. We don’t even know where it landed. It was fired out the window ini’ the direction of the Queen,” said Mr Lewis. “She was walking in the

said the «hot, dtoMr Walton confirmed In aa interview with “The Piete" »t the week-end that he heard what could have been a shot M the Queen drove between enticements. Mr Lewis said he was abb on Royal Tour duty at the mfowim that day but did not hear the shot. : He said he was “95 per cent sure” the police recovered the rifle behind a locker in the building. Christopher Lewis was charged with the post office robbery, burglaries and arson — all offences he committed in Dunedin. He was also charged with dangerbus discharge of a firearm which, according to Mr Lewis, ranked only a few lines in Dunedin’s “Otago Daily Timet.” The report noted the shot was fired the day the Queen was visiting Dunedin, he said. Mr Lewis believes a decision was made at a higher level not to charge the offender with trea-son-related offences because of the possible repercussions for future Royal tours. - Lewis was sentenced to 3J4 years Borstal training. “He was too tough for Borstal to handle so they sent him to Lake Alice (psychiatric hospital).” Mr Lewis, who. was head of the Dunedin criminal intelligence section, prepared a dossier on Lewis before Prince Charles’s 1983 tour. A plot was uncovered involving Lewis escaping from Lake Alice and travelling to Dunedin for an assassination attempt on the Prince.

Lewis made a knife, Overpowered a guard and held the knife to his throat before being overpowered by another guardFurther reports, page 91