Batman breaches palace

last updated 8 January 2015

London

British security officials were embarrassed this week by another lapse in security when a “fathers’ rights” activist dressed as Batman clambered up the side of Buckingham Palace. While accomplices diverted the guards’ attention, Jason Hatch and a partner, who was dressed as Batman’s sidekick, Robin, scaled the palace compound’s fence. Hatch then climbed to a ledge outside the royal family’s balcony, where he stayed for five hours, while guards pleaded with him to get down. Hatch dangled a banner that read, “Super Dads of Fathers 4 Justice Fighting for Your Right to See Your Kids,” a reference to the fathers’ group’s cause of liberalizing child-visitation laws. The incident marked the latest in a series of security breaches at the palace. Last fall, a reporter using fake documents got hired as a palace employee; a few months earlier, a comedian dressed as Osama bin Laden crashed a party for Prince William.