A 35-year-old woman who tried to climb over the front gates of Buckingham Palace in front of dozens of tourists avoided prosecution today.
Jessica Davey, of Queen’s Park, West London, was filmed climbing the front gates of the Queen’s official residence in the capital on Saturday as crowds gathered.
As tourists started to capture the incident on camera, two male officers pulled Davey to the ground before handcuffing her and dragging her into a police car.
Jessica Davey was half way up the gates of Buckingham Palace when police caught her
Two male officers pulled her back to the ground as crowds gathered to watch and take pictures
Davey was caught on camera being dragged away by the police officers on Saturday afternoon
She appeared in custody at Westminster Magistrates’ Court to answer a charge of being drunk and disorderly contrary to Section 91 of the Criminal Justice Act 1967.
But prosecutors dropped the charge against Davey, who had been remanded in custody over the weekend. She will be released today.
A court spokesman said: ‘The matter has been withdrawn so once she arrives she can be released. The matter has been withdrawn by the prosecution.’
Davey, who seemed distressed during the incident at 5.40pm, was heckled by one onlooker who shouted: ‘Queen and country yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah! F*** yeah!’
She was initially arrested on suspicion of trespass under Section 128 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 and held at a Central London police station.
The Metropolitan Police insisted it was not a terror-related incident and said she was ‘quickly detained by officers before she gained access to the palace grounds’.
The woman from West London was later charged by police with being drunk and disorderly
As stunned crowds gathered, they jeered and applauded as the officers pulled Davey away
Aidila Razak filmed the moment in a video that shows two male officers grab Ms Davey as she clings half way up the railings and pull her back down to the ground.
A crowd of people gathered, before moving closer to take pictures and videos with their phones.
Davey, a brunette, was dressed in blue jeans and black long-sleeved top. Malaysian journalist Ms Razak said police arrived and cuffed her within seconds’.
The incident came amid heightened terror fears three hours earlier when a taxi drove into a crowd outside the Natural History Museum in nearby Kensington.
The driver was later released by police after the case was downgraded from a suspected terror attack to alleged dangerous driving. Eleven people were injured.