Princess Anne’s Attempted Kidnapper Claims He Is ‘Innocent’: ‘I Was More Scared Than She Was’

Ian Ball, the man who tried to kidnap Princess Anne more than 50 years ago and wounded several people during the attempt, is now insisting he’s “innocent.”

The dramatic incident took place on March 20, 1974, when Anne’s chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce was forced to stop by a car blocking the road. Ian Ball, the driver of the obstructing vehicle, began shooting—injuring Anne’s chauffeur Alex Callender and her personal detective James Beaton—before jumping into the car and demanding the princess step out. His attempt was thwarted by a passerby.

Ball’s plan, as later revealed in a letter he wrote to Queen Elizabeth, was to kidnap then-23-year-old Anne and demand a ransom of nearly $4 million. He was charged with the attempted murder of Beaton and sentenced to life in a psychiatric hospital. However, according to the Daily Mail, he was quietly released in 2019 and now claims he’s innocent.

“I’m an innocent, sane man because I had good reason to believe the gunpowder had been taken out of the bullets and another girl had been substituted for Princess Anne,” Ball said in a new interview published on August 1.

In the same interview, Ball repeated claims he made decades ago: that the kidnapping attempt was meant to be a “hoax” carried out with the help of a police officer he only knew as “Frank.”

“The whole idea of performing the hoax was to get the publicity so I could write my autobiography, and I expected to get £10,000 in royalties,” Ball told the outlet.

“To prove my innocence I need to prove the existence of Frank,” he continued. “That will prove I had reason to believe it was all a hoax.”

Ball also claimed that Princess Anne, now 74, wasn’t afraid of him during the ordeal. According to him, despite grabbing her arm and tackling her inside the car, she “wasn’t bothered on the night.” He added, “I didn’t scare her. I was more scared than she was.”

He further told the outlet that apologizing to the men he shot would be a “waste of time.” Ball also denied that Anne gave the now-iconic response, “Not bloody likely,” when he tried to remove her from the car.

Instead, he alleged, “She said, ‘You just go away and nobody will think any more about it,’ which fuelled the belief that I thought it was a hoax.”

“At the time I thought it wasn’t Princess Anne in the car,” he added. “She looked nothing like Princess Anne. The personality was nothing like Princess Anne.”

Princess Anne herself reflected on the night during a 1980 interview with British talk show host Michael Parkinson, where she quipped, “We had a sort of discussion about where or where not we were going to go.”

Ultimately, the man who brought the kidnapping attempt to an end wasn’t Princess Anne or her then-husband, Captain Mark Phillips, but a passerby named Ronnie Russell.

Russell managed to punch Ball in the head repeatedly and eventually wrestled him to the ground. Ball tried to flee but was caught soon after by a nearby officer.

For his heroic actions, Beaton was awarded the George Cross—Britain’s highest civilian honor for bravery—by Queen Elizabeth. Other individuals who intervened, including Callender and onlookers, were also formally recognized for their courage.