A bodyguard employed by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle is a domestic abusive ex police officer that was given a 12 week suspended prison sentence after he nearly strangled his wife to death. Pere Daobry, 51, was pictured transporting the Duke and Duchess of Sussex from their UK home, Frogmore Cottage, to Euston station, the Mirror reports.
The abusive bodybuilder was spared jail time when he was convicted at Colchester Magistrates Court in September 2016 for choking his wife, Sarah Jay, until she lost consciousness. A source told the publication: “When you consider how outspoken Meghan is on women's issues it's quite amazing that a bodyguard with that sort of background has been employed.
“His wife Sarah went through a really traumatic time with him and I'm sure if Meghan and Harry knew the full story they wouldn't be at all comfortable with him being employed as their bodyguard. Pere treated Sarah appallingly and she had to escape through a window twice to get away from him.
"I really don't think Harry and Meghan would want someone like him guarding them.” Daobry had worked for Metropolitan Police for 12 years when he launched into a minute-long assault on his ex-wife, Mail Online revealed.
The former Essex Police sergeant used both hands to choke her until she was unconscious. He then called police confessing to the 999 call handler: “I want to report an assault and I am the perpetrator. I have assaulted my wife.”
When asked by the operator if his wife needed an ambulance, the dad-of-four said: “Yeah, I tried to strangle her.” Daobry - who was married to Mrs Jay for two years before the Christmas time attack - later denied the assault, but was found guilty after a trial.
He claimed to have used a police-approved choke hold to stop Mrs Jay from taking an overdose of prescribed tablets at their home in the pretty Essex village of Thorpe-le-Soken. But magistrates rejected his evidence "entirely” and found him guilty of assault at the earlier hearing.
The offence was serious enough that he could have been jailed - but he was yesterday handed a 12-week suspended prison sentence at Colchester Magistrates’ Court. After leaving the police Daobry worked as protection for VIPs, including a member of the UAE Royal Family.
It was earlier reported Prince Harry hired his former royal protection officer to keep him and Meghan safe during their European tour, following a row over the decision to strip him of taxpayer funded security. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are understood to be paying “thousands of pounds a day” for two ex-Met Police officers - including a bodyguard honoured by the Queen.
Mr Langdown, who is now working for a private security firm after retiring from the Met Police last year, also accompanied Meghan when she travelled to New York for her megabucks baby shower, paid for by her friend tennis legend Serena Williams and Amal Clooney. Prince Harry is currently locked in a bitter legal battle with the Home Office at the High Court over the decision by the Royal and VIP Executive Committee (RAVEC) to take away his police protection after he quit the royal family in 2020.
Harry claims the decision was “personal” after discovering the Queen’s trusted private secretary, Sir Edward Young, also advised on the decision to remove his protected status after he chose to quit The Firm.
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