Kate Middleton gets gun guard

Armed police have erected a ring of steel around Kate Middleton’s family home and put in a team of bodyguards, including two male and two female protection officers.

Back-up officers also carrying guns followed in an unmarked Land Rover, part of the crack Scotland Yard team assigned to protect her. As precise details of the biggest royal wedding for 30 years, expected to take place at Westminster Abbey next summer, were being finalised last night, Prince William’s bride-to-be ventured out of the house in Bucklebury, Berks, to visit friends, with her new entourage in tow.

The team shadowing Kate, 28, includes two experienced women bodyguards who used to protect Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.

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Uniformed firearms officers brandishing semi-automatic machine guns have been patrolling the grounds of the Middletons’ five-bedroom home in the village of Bucklebury, near Newbury.

Since her engagement, Kate, 28, is entitled to protection at taxpayers’ expense and she now faces a lifetime of having a detective shadowing her every move.

As a member of the Royal Family, she will always be a potential target for terrorists, including Al Qaeda and dissident Irish republicans. Police also keep a constantly updated list of mentally unstable people who stalk the royals.

The future Queen, beaming, was spotted yesterday driving away from her family home with one of her new burly minders in the passenger seat of her dark blue Audi. A police back-up team driving a grey Land Rover sped away behind her, giving her extra security while she was out for three hours visiting friends.

A police car was parked on her driveway, while other officers with a sniffer dog kept guard at the house she shares her with her parents, Michael and Carole, and her siblings Pippa and James. A portable loo for police to use in the grounds of the house was delivered yesterday.

The security will come as a shock to the Middleton family. The strain seemed to be showing on Carole Middleton’s face when she left the house yesterday.

But at least one of Kate’s new personal protection officers has been able to build up an instant rapport with the bride-to-be’s mother.

Sergeant Emma Probert, who has been transferred from looking after Princess Beatrice, is a former air hostess, just like Carole. She is part of a four-strong team who will guard Kate 24 hours a day.

Royal sources said the policewoman and her new boss have already hit it off after Kate discovered her shared history with her mother. “Emma was a trolley dolly just like Kate’s mum Carole,” said an insider. “Kate laughed out loud when she heard and they’ve had a good giggle about it.

“They already get on well, which is brilliant, as they will be spending so much time in each other’s company.”

Carole, 55, has been sneered at by snobs among some in the royal circle who used to shout “doors to manual” behind her back, according to some sources. But she has brushed off the criticism.

Sgt Probert, 39, of St Albans, Herts, will work closely with Inspector Karen Llewellyn, 45, who has been appointed as head of the team guarding Kate. She has been managing the team guarding Beatrice, 22, and Eugenie, 20. The two women officers have already been dubbed Cagney and Lacey, after the US TV show.

A Scotland Yard source said: “It was thought very important to have two female members of the team who will get on well with Kate. They have been specially chosen for their experience and the fact that they are easy to get on with.”

Beatrice and Eugenie were said to be “sad but philosophical” at losing Emma. “They got on really well with her but they understand that Kate is the priority at the moment,” said a source.

Emma was praised for her work during the July 7 bombings in London in 2005. She was among the first to arrive in Tavistock Square where 13 people were killed in a bus explosion.

She has also suffered her own share of tragedy. In March last year her 43-year-old husband Michael, a police constable in Harrow, north-west London, was killed in a skiing accident in the French Alps.