Secret Pope visit plans handed in at Shrewsbury police station
Monday 6th September 2010, 11:27AM BST.
Secret plans for security during the Pope’s visit to Britain were handed in at a Shropshire police station after being left in a pub, it was revealed today.
The manager of the bar where they were found handed in the five-page document to staff at Shrewsbury Police Station yesterday afternoon.
The papers gave detailed information about the Pope’s movements during one of the biggest events of his four-day trip later this month.
It showed where his car would be parked and it also revealed exactly where VIPs, expected to include former PM Tony Blair, would be sitting for the Pope’s open-air mass.
The papers were found at the Moorings bar and grill, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, before being handed to police staff at Shrewsbury.
But organisers today said the visit would go ahead as planned and security had not been breached.
A spokesman for the cabinet office said: “Security of the papal visit is of paramount importance and we are confident arrangements for all events are robust.
“We are aware of a document being passed to the media but the police and event organisers have confirmed that security has not been compromised.”
Jim Treherne, manager of the bar where the papers were left, found the papers at a table used by two smartly-dressed men who shared lunch and a bottle of wine at the Moorings.
They included aerial plans of Crofton Park, Birmingham.
Mr Treherne locked the papers away, expecting the men to return and ask for them. But the bar has now closed down and he has decided he should hand the documents to police.
The Pope’s visit is already controversial after it was revealed that it will cost the taxpayer £20million.
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Does it show where the next vision of jesus will be revealed?
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Oh, dear! Heads will roll! As they say.
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Sounds like a hoax or a prank.
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Heads “SHOULD” roll. At the very least, a reduction in rank and/or a heavy fine, say two months salary.
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Don’t know about the vision, or the cost of his ‘state’ visit to the nation (likely to exceed £100million including extra policing) – maybe it could say how many boys and girls were abused by the pope’s representatives around the world that he refused to hand over to the criminal authorities in those countries.
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