A new book has claimed that as a teenager, Queen Camilla fought off a pervert by whacking his private parts with her shoe when she was on a train to Paddington in the 1960s
Queen Camilla fought off a pervert who tried to grope her on a train by whacking him in the groin with her shoe, a new book has claimed.
Camilla, 78, was approached by a man who sat down next to her on a train to Paddington when she was a teenager in the 1960s.
The pervert grabbed the future Queen and she removed her shoe and bashed her assailant in his nether regions with the heel. Upon arrival at the train station, she then found a uniformed officer and reported the attack. The man was then arrested, according to the book.
The shocking incident was revealed in Valentine Low’s latest book ‘Power and the Palace: The Inside Story of the Monarchy and 10 Downing Street’, which is serialised in The Times and Sunday Times.
The Queen is said in 2012 to have told then-Mayor of London Boris Johnson, who wanted to open up three rape crisis centres, about the incident. His communications director Guto Harri remembered: “She was on a train going to Paddington — she was about 16, 17 — and some guy was moving his hand further and further …”
“At that point Johnson had asked what happened next. She replied: ‘I did what my mother taught me to. I took off my shoe and whacked him in the nuts with the heel.’”
He continued: “She was self-possessed enough when they arrived at Paddington to jump off the train, find a guy in uniform and say, ‘That man just attacked me’, and he was arrested.’” She later opened up two of the three rape centres Boris opened, he added.
Camilla has battled tirelessly for victims of sexual and domestic violence in her adult life and Royal role. When Duchess of Cornwall she held a reception at Clarence House in 2012 – said to be the first time organisations had been drawn together specifically to discuss rape and sexual abuse.
She regularly holds engagements at Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARCs) meeting staff and victims in the UK. But she has also taken her campaigning across the globe including USA, India and during a tour of the Balkans in 2016 where she met women who were raped during the Kosovan conflict.
A hit ITV documentary ‘Her Majesty The Queen: Behind Closed Doors’ aired last year. The 90-minute film documents the Queen over the course of a year at official royal engagements standing up for women and meetings with survivors.
It is understood the Queen has not wanted to talk about the train incident in the past as she has not wanted to distract from the victims of sexual violence. Sources said she supports others because it is the right thing to do, not because of what happened to her.
A spokesman for the Queen declined to comment.
