The Royalist arrived at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Monday as a spectator in the case brought by Prince Harry and others against the alleged intrusions by the British media.
After lunch on day one, as Harry’s team was laying out his case, I thought I saw the woman alleged to be his stalker lined up outside courtroom 76, waiting to be admitted.
Harry’s legal team was about to resume its arguments and, because all the press seats were taken, The Royalist had joined the line for members of the public.
It seemed odd when court staff, who decide how many people are allowed into the public stands (usually as few as 10-12), conveniently cut off access to the court just as this person reached the front of the line. This was a little strict, based on previous experience. Usually, they squash people in like sardines.
The woman in question looked kind of annoyed and stalked off into the depths of the court building, disappearing into its warren of corridors.
We witnessed the events of the day in an overflow room via a video link, but she did not appear there. Surely it was highly unlikely that a woman known to be an over-avid follower could get so close to her target?
And yet, it seems that she did. According to a report by Victoria Ward in the Telegraph, the alleged stalker gained access to Court 76 twice while Harry was there. Ward claimed that the woman not only entered the courtroom but was also seated just a few rows behind the prince.
A little context is necessary here. The woman has long presented herself not as a threat but as a devoted supporter. She has been described as a member of the so-called “Sussex squad” of committed fans. She first got physically close to Harry and Meghan in Nigeria during a May 2024 trip. There was no sign at that point that the couple or their team regarded her as dangerous.
By September, however, I understand she had been placed on a police list of “fixated” individuals.
Around that time there were two further encounters. At a WellChild event in London, Harry’s main public engagement at that time, she is said to have entered the hotel hours in advance and hidden in the toilets, emerging only when she knew the prince was nearby.
Even then, she failed to get close to him.
But at a separate charity visit connected to the provision of prosthetics for injured servicemen, she did. According to Harry’s people, she was physically blocked from approaching him by an ex-military member of his staff, just feet from the prince. Harry was then hustled inside, and the doors slammed behind him. That incident has since been cited by his team as part of the case for improved protection.
The Royalist’s experience last week underlined how easy it would be for someone who was determined to cause harm to approach a high-profile figure at the Royal Courts of Justice. The security regime is quite soft. You place your belongings in a tray, send them through an ageing X-ray machine, and walk through a scanner watched by a handful of guards.
Given that, statistically, a significant number of people entering the building are defendants or individuals with deep grudges against one another, the laxity is surprising.
On the first morning I, without thinking, carried in a heavy metal camera tripod I was using for outside broadcasts.
Folded down, it was about 15 inches long and easily solid enough to be used as a weapon, especially if partially extended. No one noticed it when my bag went through the machine. Only when I returned after lunch did a guard pull me aside, give me a telling-off, and insist I check it in. Tripods are on the official list of banned items, yet it had slipped through once without comment.
Those who support Harry getting his security renewed will, of course, say this incident is a powerful illustration of why Harry needs proper, armed police protection in the U.K. rather than relying on private security guards.
That said, the presence of one fixated fan in a public courtroom is unlikely to influence the RMB and RAVEC committees, which are currently deciding whether Harry and his family should receive automatic police protection every time he comes to Britain. A stalker-type figure turning up to see a famous person at an open court is not unprecedented.
However, the episode does highlight how exposed Harry is under the arrangements currently in place.
Whatever the legal principles of open justice and equal access to the courts, it is hard to imagine a similarly obsessed individual being allowed to sit yards behind, say, the former Prince Andrew, who does still have RAVEC-mandated police protection. In those cases, police officers would almost certainly have found a way to move the person on, long before they reached the courtroom door.
What this incident also shows is the weakness of the “bespoke” security package that Harry was told he would receive whenever he visited the U.K.
The Royalist understands that, in practice, the tailored arrangement amounts to little more than a phone number for a police liaison officer rather than an actual deployment of officers. During this latest hearing, there were no visible British police bodyguards with Harry; he relied on his own private security team, who had no authority inside the court to remove a member of the public they considered a risk.
The behavior of a single fixated fan will not convince officials that Harry should get full, automatic, state-funded protection the moment his plane touches down at Heathrow.
Clearly, Harry could bring his children to visit their grandfather, the king, safely under the current arrangements if both sides made a concerted effort.
I also think Harry was hugely unwise to aggravate the situation by detailing how he had killed 25 members of the Taliban in his memoir, and to include an account of chasing one man riding a motorbike who was being hunted down by an Apache helicopter he was crewing.
Of course, fundamentally, he wants the security detail reinstated to avoid the risk of dying a tragic death like his mother. But there is no denying that Harry whizzing through London with a police escort and outriders would also telegraph a very different level of legitimacy to Harry stuck in London traffic.
That said, surely the British state has a responsibility to ensure the son of the reigning monarch is better shielded than he was inside Court 76 last week.
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