Blunkett tells anti-terror chiefs ‘heads will roll’ over Royal security fiasco

BRITISH Home Secretary David Blunkett warned anti-terror chiefs last night that their “heads are on the block” after the security fiasco which allowed a gatecrasher dressed as Osama bin Laden to get within striking distance of the Royal Family.

Mr Blunkett said he was "deeply concerned" by Saturday's security breach during Prince William's 21st birthday party at Windsor Castle and will make a statement on royal security to the House of Commons tomorrow.

Police have already handed him a six-page dossier on the debacle which he was to examine overnight.

Asked if heads would roll, Mr Blunkett said: "The heads of the services are in no doubt about that."

But he added: "I'm not looking for scapegoats, I am looking for answers to very difficult questions.

"There is no question that after what happened, everyone in every position all the way through counter-terrorism forces and Royal protection know their heads are on the block."

Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir John Stevens personally apologised to the Royal Family for the "appalling" breach which allowed comedian Aaron Barschak to get into the party.

Assistant Commissioner David Veness, in overall charge of specialist operations at the Yard, also offered a grovelling public apology.

Officers trying to establish how Barschak, 36, slipped through the security net were believed to be focusing on a route through the grounds of St George's School.

The Duke and Duchess of York's daughter Beatrice is a day pupil at the prestigious mixed preparatory school which provides the choir boys and girls for St George's Chapel and shares a common boundary with the north side of Windsor Castle.

Barschak is thought to have made his way across the school grounds and over the wall at the rear which separates St George's from the escarpment on which the castle walls are built.

He is then believed to have scaled the 20 metre-high steep slope which runs up from the school's perimeter to the base of the castle walls.

Police think the comedian climbed one of many beech or chestnut trees which overhang the top of the castle walls themselves. From the top of one of these he jumped on to the walls and on to the terrace just inside. After getting on to the terrace Barschak was caught by police but talked his way into the party even though he had no invitation and was not on any guest list.