‘Fake priest’ spends night with UK Queen’s guards
The British military said on Tuesday that it had launched an investigation after reports that a man posing as a priest managed to infiltrate the barracks of the Coldstream Guards. The imposter socialized with the elite soldiers tasked with protecting the Queen, spending a night at Victoria Barracks near Windsor Castle.
“The army takes this breach of security extremely seriously and it will be thoroughly investigated as a matter of priority,” a Ministry of Defence spokesperson said, but declined to comment further as the incident was now “part of an ongoing investigation.”
The breach, which occurred last week, was first reported by The Sun on Monday. According to the tabloid’s source, the man showed up at the barracks’ gate and successfully conned his way in without showing any identification or presenting credentials.
“The guy turned up at the gate, said his name was Father Cruise and claimed to be a friend of the battalion’s Padre, the Reverend Matt Coles. He was invited in and offered something to eat,” the source said.
The phony priest promptly befriended the guardsmen at the facility and “within a couple of hours he was drinking with the officers in the bar.” The conman entertained his new friends with increasingly improbable stories over the drinks, bragging about serving during the Iraq War and claiming to have received a medal for bravery.
“He was telling lots of tall stories and the lads were enjoying his banter,” the source claimed.
It was only later when he started talking about how he had worked as an ejector-seat test pilot and had some organs replaced that the chaps started to get suspicious.
Despite said “suspicions,” the phony priest was still offered a bed at the barracks and spent the night there. The man was inspected only in the morning and the police were called to the barracks, removing the impostor from the building. The man was not arrested and no further action against him has been taken so far.
