Coppers locked Rushdie in a cupboard

One of the Special Branch officers assigned to protect Salman Rushdie during his fatwa years has revealed how a group of his fellow officers once locked the Booker Prize-winning author in a cupboard so that they could go down to the pub. The revelation appears in a new book, On Her Majesty's Service, written by one of the novelist’s former protectors, Ron Evans, and occurred in 1989 when Rushdie, whose codename was "Joe", was holed up in a safe house in Wimbledon.

In the book, Evans portrays the writer as rude, arrogant and mean. It appears it was the latter trait that led to the cupboard incident. Setting the scene, Evans recalls how he and two colleagues were once on duty and had a few bottles of red wine, finished them, and then went looking for more. They found some good French stuff belonging to Rushdie and an officer was dispatched to ask him if they could buy it. "He returned a few minutes later - 'He says it'll cost us £45 a bottle.' Joe wanted corkage!"

This rubbed the coppers up the wrong way, and they took their revenge. Says Evans: "The original team with Scruffy [their nickname for Rushdie] got so fed up with his attitude that they locked him in a cupboard under the stairs and all went to the local pub for a pint or two. When they were suitably refreshed they came back and let him out."

Evans also reveals that the protection team were expected to pay Rushdie rent for their lodgings in the safe house. "I shook my head which felt like it was about to explode. We were paying or, rather, the taxpayer was paying Rushdie to protect him!"