The East Lothian man who tackled a Prince Andrew heckler in Edinburgh has spoken out.
Craig Thomson and another man pulled a protestor to the ground as he heckled Prince Andrew over his links to Jeffrey Epstein
The incident occurred during the Queen's funeral procession, a few feet away from King Charles III, with Craig then charged with assault despite saying he was just being a "good citizen".
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The patriotic construction worker, who has since been cleared, said he feared for the new monarch's safety and waited for the police to step in before finally taking matters into his own hands, reports the Scottish Daily Express.
The 34-year-old from Prestonpans, East Lothian, joined the thousands to watch the sombre procession of Her Majesty's hearse from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles' Cathedral on September 12.
King Charles with his siblings the Princess Royal and the Dukes of Wessex and York followed the hearse on foot. Mr Thomson said he became alarmed by a commotion that was beginning in the crowd unaware it was caused by a student protestor calling Prince Andrew a "sick old man".
Mr Thomson told the Scottish Sun: “It was madness. As far as I was concerned I was just being a good citizen. The guy could have attacked the King. Or he could have attacked the Queen’s coffin. I feel that the situation could have got a lot worse if I hadn’t did what I did.”
“I’m a big supporter of the monarchy. In my family, the late Queen was always an influential figure. So I was there to pay my respects. There had been shouting prior to the hearse passing where I was standing. People were yelling that the Royal Family is corrupt.
“I couldn’t see where it was coming from. The area was packed. But as the King and the rest of the Royals approached where I was, all I could hear was this man shouting. I could not make out what he was saying, all I could hear was noise.
“That’s when I saw that the guy had mounted the security fence. People around me were starting to panic and were backing away from him. Nobody knew what was going to happen.
“I was worried about what he was going to do. It may sound daft but I thought he was going to jump the fence and attack the King.”“I restrained him to get him back from the fence. I certainly did not assault him. I put my hands on his shoulders and I pulled him back.
“The weight difference probably meant that I pulled him a bit harder than what I meant to. The man ended up falling backwards and landing on the ground.”
He said: “An officer picked the protester up and took him away. That was really it. The situation was defused very quickly.
“And I made myself known to the police right away. I didn’t have anything to hide and didn’t want to run away. But I asked them why they had not restrained the protester.
“They told me to get away and insisted they didn’t need me there. They told me to leave.”
Footage of the heckler being grabbed by crowd members led to the arrest of two people in connection with alleged assault charges on October 2. Both of the 34-year-old men have been cleared.
Mr Thomson revealed his shock when he received a phone call from detectives asking him to go to the police station at St Leonard's in Edinburgh.
He said: “As far as I was concerned I had carried out a good citizen act. But, lo and behold, the police phoned me days later.
“They said they’d like to speak to me regarding an incident and asked if I could hand myself in. CID got involved. They said the case was high profile because the Royal Family was involved.
“Then they charged me with assault. At first I thought it was a wind-up. They also asked me whether I would be willing to testify against the protester but I declined.
“I had no reason to try to get that young laddie into trouble. I’ve not got any grievance against him.”
He added: “The charges have been dropped for the time being. Thankfully the procurator fiscal deemed that it wasn’t an assault. I’m just mega-relieved. Having a charge like that hanging over you is certainly not ideal.”
He claims how he only realised the protester had been directing his verbal attack against Prince Andrew when he saw news reports and telly footage.
They showed the man had bawled “Sick old man” at the Duke of York., adding “At that moment in time I didn’t realise what he was shouting. It was all a blur. His anger was directed at Prince Andrew. But I thought he was being very disrespectful.
“There’s a time and a place to be shouting — and that wasn’t it. It was a funeral procession for the Queen.
“Shouting at Prince Andrew isn’t going to make one bit of difference. However, what I found very strange was that the police just stood and watched him. And I said that to them when they arrested me."
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