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A distant cousin to the King is being hunted by police after after being convicted of hurling racist abuse in a McDonald’s restaurant.
Rowan Nash Lascelles is King Charles’ second cousin once removed and the 68th in line to the throne.
The 41-year-old is a great-great grandchild of George V and has multiple previous convictions for racially aggravated criminal offences.
Lascelles is currently on trial for threatening to stab a homeless support worker in the face, shouting racist abuse in a McDonald’s and referring to gay men as ‘batty boys’.
The renegade royal also attacked a woman at Victoria railway station and admitted threatening behaviour towards another last year.
He did not attend his latest trial at Willesden Magistrates’ Court today (weds) and it went ahead in his absence.
Magistrate Patricia Thomson issued a warrant for his arrest after finding him guilty of multiple offences.
Earlier this month, Lascelles also admitted racially harrassing a man at WHSmith at Victoria station on February 16 last year.
He denied but was convicted of racially aggravated harassment and threatening behaviour at a McDonald’s in Kilburn High Road last September.
Lascelles is said to have approached men he believed to be gay in the restaurant, referring to them as ‘batty boys’ and told them ‘I bet you love it up the a***.’
He then repeatedly started shouting ‘n*****’ as he approached the counter and continued to yell it into the kitchen, the court heard.
When a black male objected to the slur, Lascelles replied ‘go on let me say it one more time’.
Police were called and Lascelles was arrested.
Lascelles was also convicted of using threatening words with intent to cause fear of or provoke unlawful violence to St Mungo’s worker Claire Hopkins on September 15, 2023.
Mrs Hopkins, the manager of the Westminster outreach team at St Mungo’s, told the court Lascelles pressed their intercom and immediately started kicking the door.
She said: ‘I could hear he was shouting but couldn’t hear what he was saying initially.
‘One staff member was outside trying to get in so we made the decision to go outside and support her to come into building.
‘When she came in Rowan placed his foot and shoulder against the door to prevent me from closing it and that’s when he started shouting again.
‘He was shouting about a colleague of mine called Maria and making quite specific threats to Maria that he wanted to smash her head in.’
He then told Mrs Hopkins: ‘I’m going to get a knife and stab you in the face’, the court heard.
She said she was scared and shaking and wanted to shut the door as quickly as she could.
Once the door was shut Lascelles disappeared but later returned and smashed two windows.
Mrs Hopkins said: ‘I was scared, we have metal bars on the side of our windows so I was really grateful for that as it meant he couldn’t have come in.’
He ran before the police arrived, she said.
Mrs Hopkins had known Lascelles through the charity on and off since 2020.
‘There have been periods where Rowan has been friendly and as a charity we have been able to support him but also other incidents where he has been aggressive and threatening.’
Lascelles admitted causing £460 criminal damage of a window at St Mungo’s and breaking another window worth £410, both in September last year.
He also admitted criminal damage to a Colindale police station cell on 19 September 2023.
Applying for a warrant to be issued for his arrest prosecutor Martin Edwards said Lascelles was ‘no stranger to the court system.’
He has 15 sets of previous convictions for 21 offences including racially aggravated harassment.
Lascelles has been living in a multiple occupation house through a housing association but he was not there yesterday.
He was once banned from Sainsbury’s in The Strand for telling staff to ‘go back to where you come from.’
Lascelles, of Cambridge Gardens, Ladbroke Grove, will be sentenced on a date to be fixed if he is found by police.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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