Here are some photos of the Duchess of Edinburgh in Surrey on Friday. She did an event with her patronage, Girlguiding, and it was all about encouraging girls and young women to enter into STEM fields. Meanwhile, there’s some interesting news about a horrible situation from 2023. Just after King Charles’s coronation, Sophie was traveling in a multi-vehicle police motorcade, and the royal protection officers were apparently speeding and being reckless. One of the speeding police cars struck an 81-year-old woman named Helen Holland. Holland was hospitalized and in a coma for two weeks, and then she passed away. While the Holland family was outraged by what happened, they made a point of saying that they didn’t blame Sophie. It did make people wonder why Sophie needs a multi-car motorcade to simply go to a garden party or whatever. Well, in any case, a police officer has been charged in Holland’s death.
A Metropolitan Police officer has been charged over the death of a woman who was hit by a motorcycle escorting the Duchess of Edinburgh through London. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it had authorised a charge of causing death by careless driving against 67-year-old Christopher Harrison.
He is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 6 November.
Helen Holland, 81, suffered serious injuries in the collision in Earl’s Court on 10 May. She died in hospital two weeks later.
In a statement released at the time, Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, said her “heartfelt thoughts and prayers” were with Ms Holland and her family. Ms Holland, a mother-of-four who was also a grandmother-of-10 and great grandmother-of-seven, was struck at the junction of West Cromwell Road and Warwick Road. The CPS said the charge against Harrison was authorised following a review of the evidence by the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
From the descriptions of the road and the circumstances, the accident made no sense unless the police driver made zero attempt to slow down or show caution in a pedestrian-heavy area. So, I can understand why Christopher Harrison is being charged with a crime. I wonder if they did a larger investigation into why Sophie needs that many RPOs and why they believed they needed to speed in the middle of the day, carrying out non-urgent business.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.