Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, were subjected to a deluge of online threats when they lived in the UK, according to a senior police official who described the abuse as “disgusting and very real”.
Neil Basu, outgoing deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said in an interview with Channel 4 News posted on Twitter on Tuesday that the threats were credible and the amount and tenor of the content would have left the former Meghan Markle feeling “threatened all the time”.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who left the UK and moved to California in 2020 in part, said for security reasons they had condemned racist and violent threats since at least 2016, even as their legion of critics accused them of that exaggerates. their vulnerability to the threat.
From 2020:Harry and Meghan, along with their beagle Guy, are calling for an end to “structural racism” in the UK
Now Basu, a former head of counter-terrorism and in charge of royal protection in the years before the Sussexes left, is backing what they said.
His remarks provide new context for Harry’s legal efforts to get police protection for his family when in the UK, over which he is suing the British government.
Speaking to Channel 4’s Cathy Newman, Basu, who is biracial, was asked to characterize the threats Sussex received. “Disgusting and very real,” he replied.
There were many of them and especially from the extreme right, he confirmed.
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“Absolutely, and if you’d seen the things that were written and you’d get … the kind of rhetoric that’s online, if you don’t know what they know, you’d feel threatened all the time,” he said. .
He was convinced the danger to Meghan’s life was real, he said. “We had teams investigating. People have been prosecuted for these threats.”
Harry’s legal action against the Home Office over his security arrangements during the UK visit is pending. In July, a high court judge said part of his case could go to a judicial review.
Harry, 38, is challenging a February 2020 decision by the Home Office’s royal protection committee that he and his family will no longer be given the same level of personal protection when they visit, although he has offered to pay himself.
A spokesman for the Sussexes in California declined to comment to USA TODAY.
“It’s very nice to have me back”:Duchess Meghan and Prince Harry return to the UK to promote causes
Meghan, 41, is set to be the chief guest at a Women’s Fund of Central Indiana event Tuesday night in downtown Indianapolis. ‘The Power of Women: An Evening with Meghan, Duchess of Sussex’ is a private event which will include an interview with Meghan by a local female rabbi.
Next week, Harry and Meghan are set to receive the Robert F. Kennedy Ripple of Hope Award at a gala in New York for their “moral courage” in fighting “structural racism” in the British royal family, according to Kerry Kennedy, one of RFK’s daughters and president of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.
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