A man who has admitted scaling Buckingham Palace’s wall is a convicted murderer, a court has heard.
Dennis Hennessy, 41, of Wembley, north-west London, pleaded guilty to one count of trespass on a protected site and one count of criminal damage. He admitted the charges at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, where he was jailed for four months.
The court heard how he had been on licence after being convicted of the murder of a homeless man in 1992.
Hennessy cut his right hand as he climbed over the top of the wall, which is between 8ft to 10ft high, and set the alarm off. He had walked around the palace gardens for about 10 minutes before his arrest.
Hennessy told police he had “walked through the gardens admiring the view”.
Prosecutor Tom Nicholson told the court that he had repeatedly asked “is Ma’am in?” as he was detained. Chief magistrate, senior district judge Howard Riddle, sentenced him to four months for trespassing and two months, to run concurrently, for damaging the wires of the alarm system.