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Documents confirming an attempt by a 17-year-old anti-royalist to assassinate Queen Elizabeth of England has been revealed.
The document released by New Zealand’s intelligence agency said Christopher Lewis, a member of a right-wing terror group, tried to terminate the queen’s life when she visited Dunedin in 1981.
The mysterious incident that has prompted a fresh police investigation into an alleged “cover up”.
According to Telegraph UK, the previously classified documents revealed that Lewis hid in a toilet cubicle on the fifth floor of a building overlooking the Royal Parade in Dunedin, a city on the South Island, on October 14 1981 and fired a single shot with a stolen .22 rifle as the Queen exited her vehicle.
A 1997 memo by the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service said the shot missed and may not have been aimed directly at the Queen.
“Lewis did indeed originally intend to assassinate the Queen, however did not have a suitable vantage point from which to fire, nor a sufficiently high-powered rifle for the range from the target,” said the memo, released after a freedom of information request by Fairfax Media.
“Although an anti-royalist, Lewis had absolutely no connections with any Irish republican groups.”
In an unexplained turn of affairs, police arrested Lewis but failed to charge him over the attempted assassination. Two of Lewis’s friends were also arrested.
Lewis was later charged only with unlawful possession and discharge of a firearm.
He claimed to be in command of a shadowy group called the National Imperial Guerrilla Army, which included a higher-ranked figure called the Polar Bear and another called The Snowman who issued an order to “terrorise Dunedin”.
Intelligence officials investigated the claim, though police doubted the existence of the Polar Bear or The Snowman.
Lewis later told the police: “They are a figment of my imagination.”
The group was apparently an outfit that Lewis founded with two friends.
Adding to the intrigue, journalists and onlookers who heard the gunshot were told by authorities that it was caused by a falling street sign.
The lack of public comment about the assassination attempt has prompted speculation that authorities – under political pressure – tried to cover up the incident to avoid embarrassment during the royal visit and to ensure that future tours would not be jeopardised.
A memo in 1981 from the intelligence service stated: “Current police investigations into the shots have been conducted discreetly and most media representatives probably have the impression that the noise was caused by a firework of some description.”
It added: “There is a worry, however, that in court the press may make the connections between the date of the offence and the Queen’s visit.”
The memo, marked “Secret”, was titled “Possible Attempt on the Life of Queen Elizabeth II by National Imperial Guerrilla Army”.
The release of the documents have prompted police in New Zealand to launch an investigation into the handling of the incident.
Telegraph UK report by Jonathan Pearlman