LONDON -- Michael Fagan, the Buckingham Palace intruder whose release from mental hospital raised parliament's ire, was quoted today as saying the queen was 'very understanding' when he sat on her bed.
In an exclusive Daily Star interview, the 32-year-old unemployed laborer said he was more frightened than the queen when he chatted with her after breaking into Buckingham Palace July 9.
'I never went into Buckingham Palace to cause distress to her majesty,' Fagan said. 'I'm not a mischief maker or a nasty villain. I have never, ever, hurt anybody.'
Fagan told the newspaper he was anxious to set the record straight about his visit.
'All that stuff that's been written about her wearing a wig, a babydoll nightie and whispering sweet nothings is rubbish,' he said. 'It's not even worth thinking about.'
Fagan was never prosecuted for the July incident but was charged and later acquitted of stealing a bottle of wine during an earlier palace intrusion. He was sent to a mental hospital in Liverpool after pleading guilty to stealing a car.
His release late Wednesday raised an an angry outcry with Conservative politicians demanding an explanation.
In Parliament Thursday, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said she understood the 'deep feelings of anxiety' over Fagan's release from a mental hospital Wednesday, but said the Home Secretary had no jurisdiction over the case.
Fagan, back at home in London Thursday night to watch the film 'E.T.' with wife and his four children, said he wandered unchallenged through the palace hallways, sipped wine in a cabinet and eventually found himself in the queen's bedroom.
'I reckon I had done the queen a favor by proving how lousy the security system was,' he said. 'The queen was very understanding and very much in control of the situation.'
Of his 3 months in a mental hospital, Fagan said, 'It wore me down a bit but no matter what happens you've got to retain your ability to laugh at life.'
