Unknown to other VIPs, on board was a convicted sex attacker who has served time for a series of despicable attacks on women
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Strutting the deck of the Royal Barge, Harbinder Singh Rana hid a vile secret as he mingled with royalty for the Diamond Jubilee pageant.
Unknown to other VIPs enjoying the occasion during Sunday’s 1,000-boat Thames flotilla, he is a convicted sex attacker who has served time for a series of despicable attacks on women.
And last night, as MPs demanded a police probe into the alarming security lapse, it was revealed that 52-year-old Rana had been invited to join the exclusive celebrations by Prince Charles – who was totally unaware of his shameful past.
But even though the invite came though the prince’s office, questions were being asked yesterday about why apparently no checks were carried out on his background before he was allowed on board.
And the huge security blunder reveals serious weaknesses in the vetting procedures that are supposed to protect the Royal Family at all times.
During his time on the barge, Rana came into close proximity with the Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Charles, Camilla, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry.
But he would never have been allowed anywhere near them if the details of his sickening crimes had been unearthed sooner.
During his trial in 1986, a jury heard how he tricked his way into his victims’ homes by posing as a doctor before subjecting them to internal examinations – even giving some of the women injections.
He was sentenced to four years after being convicted of five counts of indecent assault, 11 counts of assault causing actual bodily harm and one of attempted assault.
Confronted by the Mirror yesterday, Rana revealed he was sent an invite to be a guest aboard the Royal Barge by Prince Charles’s office around three weeks ago.
He is understood to have met Charles several times through his work for the Anglo-Sikh Heritage Trail – a group that promotes the Sikh community in Britain.
Asked whether he had been vetted, Rana, who lives in Walsall, West Midlands, said: “I don’t know what checks they do or how they do them.”
But, amazingly, he said he had never “had to tell anybody” of his sex crimes and was never asked about them before the event.
Rana, who has worked as a management consultant in the past, said: “I was given the invitation and I attended.
"The fact that the Prince of Wales invited me clearly shows what I have done for the community since then.”
He said of his conviction: “It was very circumstantial. It is an area I have switched off from my life and got on with it.”
At his trial Rana denied the sex allegations and yesterday still claimed it was a case of “mistaken identity”.
He added: “I have a relationship with some of Charles’s staff, not him – although I have met him at events, yes.
“I have made it clear I wasn’t representing the Sikh community, I was there because I was very happy to be invited.”
He said that, although the Queen was at times just “a few feet” from him, he never spoke to her or any senior member of the Royal Family while on the boat.
A spokesman for Clarence House said: “The office of Prince Charles was unaware of his previous convictions.”
But last night Steve McCabe, MP for Birmingham Selly Oak, who sits on the Home Affairs select committee, said: “It is an astonishing situation in terms of security. I’m flabbergasted.
“There should be a police investigation into how this was allowed to happen. Who the prince wants to entertain in private is his concern, but this was a public event. Questions need to be answered.
“I would like to know who thought he was an appropriate guest for an event involving so many women.
"Whoever was in charge of vetting Prince Charles’s guest list needs to start earning his money.”
The prince’s aides appear to have been unaware of Rana’s murky secret for years.
He and the prince are thought to have first met in July 1999 at the unveiling of a statue in Thetford, Norfolk.
Since then they have met at several events and Rana accompanied Charles on a visit to Ropar in India in 2006.
At one presentation in July 1999, Rana said of the prince: “The fact that he has come here today is a fitting tribute to the relationship between the Sikh community and the Royal Family, which is based on mutual admiration.”
A picture of Rana proudly standing next to the Queen and Prince Philip was posted on the Facebook page of the Anglo-Sikh Heritage Trail on Sunday.
On its official website, Rana is listed as honorary director.
Kent Gavin
The Heritage Trail is a project of charity Maharajah Duleep Singh Centenary Trust, whose annual accounts were yesterday 310 days overdue, according to the Charity Commission.
Dr Kate Cook, from Manchester-based Trafford Rape Crisis, which deals with all forms of sexual assault, said: “Sex attackers can appear respectable and come in all guises.
“This man’s crimes were very premeditated and insidious.
“Pretending to be a doctor in order to have access to women is very deliberate, it is not like he couldn’t help himself.
"Women find this sort of attack very frightening. It can often take an extraordinarily long time, sometimes many years, for them to get over it.”
Dr Cook, a lecturer in law, added: “At the very least it is extremely disappointing that someone like him has been allowed to mingle at such a high-profile and prestigious event as this.
“There are lots of people who would have deemed it a great honour and the fact he has been let on will be very frightening for his victims.
"Imagine how horrified you would be if you saw your attacker standing alongside the Queen.”
A Scotland Yard spokesman said last night: “We do not comment on the details of security checks.”
Diamond Jubilee pageant: The best pictures from the 1,000 boat flotilla
Five decades of security scares
1974 : Princess Anne and then husband, Capt Mark Phillips, escape abduction attempt by gunman Ian Ball who holds up their car on the Mall in London and shoots four people.
1982 : Michael Fagan breaks into Buckingham Palace. Queen wakes up to find him sitting on her bed.
1993 : Anti-nuclear protesters scale walls of Palace and hold sit-down protest on lawn.
1994 : James Miller flies over Palace in a paraglider before landing on roof and exposing himself.
1994 : Cufflinks given to Prince Charles by Camilla stolen in break-in at St James’s Palace.
2003 : Daily Mirror reporter Ryan Parry exposes gaps in royal security by spending two months working under- cover as Palace footman.
2003 : “Comedy terrorist” Aaron Barschak gatecrashes Prince William’s 21st birthday bash at Windsor Castle dressed in pink frock and Bin Laden beard.
2004 : A Fathers 4 Justice campaigner dressed as Batman unfurls a protest banner on balcony at the Palace.
2004 : Michael Hammond cons way into Windsor Castle by posing as Scotland Yard detective. He was jailed for four-and-a-half years.
2010 : Duchess of Cornwall hit by a protester on student fees demo after her car came under attack.
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