A bodyguard to the rich and famous has revealed the dos and don'ts of VIP protection. Photo / 123RF
As David Cameron's protection officer misplaces his gun while airborne, a 'celebrity bodyguard' reveals the dos and don'ts of VIP protection.
In my 30 years as a bodyguard for rock stars, politicians, royals and billionaire CEOs, I have never once left my gun in an aeroplane lavatory. Or anywhere else, for that matter. It would be impossible: when I carry the weapon it often feels like an extra limb – I will rarely leave a building without making a mental note of whether or not I have it – just as you might check your keys before leaving the house in the morning.
On some jobs, I even masking-taped it to my hand before I went to sleep: everyone learns on lesson one, day one, minute one to never, ever lose your weapon.
Which is why I found it so baffling that David Cameron's close personal protection officer (that's a bodyguard, to us insiders) reportedly left his 9mm Glock 17 pistol in the loo on a British Airways flight from New York to London, alongside the former prime minister's passport. The weapon was found by a passenger, who made the responsible decision to hand it in to aircraft staff, delaying take off by an hour. The bodyguard, who has since been removed from duty, will be investigated by the Metropolitan Police's Directorate of Professional Standards as a result.
As soon as that news broke yesterday, I was inundated with messages from old colleagues, all asking the same bewildered question: just how did it happen?
Some will blame fatigue – understandable, perhaps, given that 90 per cent of your life as a bodyguard is pretty mundane. This applied even in my career, which has seen me negotiating with al-Qaeda and Islamic State, and has sent me across the world to locations from Paris to Kabul, Baghdad and Beijing.
Indeed, watch a glossy BBC drama like 2018's Bodyguard, and you may leave with the impression that close personal protection is all about tackling bomb-wielding maniacs and then sleeping with your principal (the person you are protecting). It's generally not - although I have been solicited by one client, a Hollywood actress. Whether that was to do with my looks or the fact some women are drawn to their protector, I'm not sure. And being a professional, I declined.
The real crux of the job is always having a safe route to ensure confrontation never occurs, and being able to divert your principal from shifty looking characters.
This is what occupied much of my time last week, when I was protecting several politicians at a large public event (I cannot tell you what it is, unfortunately), or on another occasion, when I was hired by a record label to ensure the safety of their staff, who had been threatened with a firebomb attack on their offices and murder of senior colleagues after they dropped a rap band.
It is also what should have been on the minds of Nigel Farage's bodyguards when he was attacked with a milkshake while on a campaign walkabout last summer; anything can be a weapon, and all threats must be quickly assessed and acted upon.
This is a skill I've honed since leaving school with four O Levels, going on to set up self-protection courses for women working in large companies and starting a consultancy group, International Corporate Protection, which employs 600 people worldwide.
Others will blame the Cameron aeroplane debacle on carelessness: as Kevin Costner said in The Bodyguard, if you remain with any one principal for too long, "you become complacent". Which is why I rotate my close protection officers, and myself, from client to client – a policy that has seen me protecting scandal-stricken A-listers who want to avoid the paparazzi; and female celebrities who need protection from their angry male stalkers.
None of my staff, I would hope, would commit the same error as Cameron's bodyguard, one I believe was the result of the complacency bred by a 'safe' environment. In the cosiness of a transatlantic flight, where you are locked in a cabin 31,000 ft in the air with a bunch of middle-class British Airways customers, it is easy to see how he might have taken his eye off the ball.
But it is not good enough. As bodyguards we talk about our "spidey senses" – a glib name for the instinctive awareness developed across years of experience. And these senses should never stop tingling, no matter where you are. When escorting a celebrity down a British street, for example, I always look out for anybody who is fidgeting, or has their hands in their pockets, is rummaging in a bag or simply looks out of place. And in the modern world, where most fans will greet a celebrity by whipping out their smartphone and taking photographs, we look for the person who doesn't.
Sometimes, of course, it turns out to be nothing: a few years ago, I was escorting a well-known musician from a venue when I noticed a very odd-looking character on the street rummaging in his pockets. I kept a close eye on him. It turned out he was trying to retrieve a baseball that he wanted my client to sign (each to their own…).
More often than not, however, our 'spidey senses' are correct – and should remain active even when we are going about the sort of bizarre task that can arise when you work with the super-wealthy. I was once protecting a prominent businessman, for example, who stepped off his private jet in Shanghai and immediately asked me to find some shirt collar stiffeners so he looked fresh for his next meeting. Another client smoked endlessly and demanded that I always carry cigarettes and a lighter for when the urge struck.
These things may not seem like part of the job description when you hire a trained protector, but when it comes to your principal, you must always deliver the goods.
Social media has added a new, complicated, dynamic to our job. It acts as a barometer of public feeling: anybody with a grudge is now free to air their displeasure on Twitter, and many of them do. But it also poses a risk, and many celebrities still make the mistake of posting their whereabouts on Instagram or Snapchat, making it easy for an assailant to find them.
This was illustrated, tragically, by American reality star Kim Kardashian, who was tied up and robbed at gunpoint at her apartment in Paris in 2018. Kardashian believes that she was targeted by the five assailants – who dressed as police officers during the attack – after posting her whereabouts and photographs of her jewellery on Instagram. Her bodyguard is now being sued by her insurance company for $6.1m (£4.7m) for "negligent" protection.
Indeed, a large part of my job nowadays is sitting down and explaining to celebrities – especially those who are relatively new to fame – how to use social media responsibly. That extends not only to posts that give away your whereabouts but non-famous friends in your presence being ultra-careful, too.
Yes, mistakes will always happen, and some are inevitable. Just never, ever leave your gun in an aeroplane loo.
As told to Luke Mintz.