Parachute Regiment veterans reported to police over anti-vaccine protest that stormed BBC building

Two Parachute Regiment veterans have been reported to police for taking part in a violent anti-vaccination protest at a BBC site, after fellow paratroopers were called on to track them down.

Protesters opposing vaccine passports and child vaccinations tried to get into the former BBC studios in West London, seemingly unaware the broadcaster had moved production of its main news programme out of the building in 2013.

Images from the protest at the former BBC Television Centre, which showed two members of the crowd wearing the distinctive maroon beret of the Parachute Regiment, caused anger among veterans and serving personnel.

Speaking exclusively to The Telegraph, former Parachute Regiment Major Andrew Fox said within 30 minutes of highlighting the incident, the airborne forces community had identified the pair and passed him their details. 

One of the men, Marco Bruin, was a member of Support Company in 2PARA. The other man, Ricky Regan, was discharged from the army in 2011 for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan.

Mr Fox said: “For him to be spouting about freedom and being a soldier fighting for freedom in the UK is a little bit rich.”

“He’s obviously not the finest soldier the British Army’s ever had.”

Although the pair are no longer serving, Mr Fox said it had been inappropriate for them to wear their berets to a political protest. “It’s really not the thing to do,” he said.

“The men of Arnhem, Mount Longdon and Goose Green, they fought for people’s real freedom: freeing Europe from the Nazis and the Falklands from the Argentines. Not for imaginary vaccine passports that don’t exist or mandatory vaccinations that aren’t happening.”

“Also they were in the right location when they fought as well,” Mr Fox said, pointing to the fact the protest targeted a site closed nine years ago. To attack the wrong building wearing the beret of an elite unit was “a particular breed of special”, Mr Fox said.

“That beret is so hard-earned, it means so much to so many people. Every paratrooper when they pull their beret on feels immense pride, not only in what they’ve personally achieved but also the achievement of their forebears and what that beret represents.”

No arrests have been made following the protest, which was also attended by Piers Corbyn, brother of the former Labour Party leader, although one police officer sustained a minor facial injury during the demonstration.

A Met police spokesman told The Telegraph an investigation had been launched.

Mr Fox said it was disgusting the two veterans wore their berets “for a protest like that where people are assaulting police officers”.

“They were trying to actively storm a place where journalists were working because they wanted to do something about the BBC and it’s really not acceptable to associate the Parachute Regiment beret with that.”

The official twitter account of the Parachute Regiment said the two men had been reported to the police and any other former or serving members found to have attended the violent protest “will be rooted out like a cancer”.

“They are an insult to every serving and retired member of the Armed Forces.”

Mr Fox applauded the Parachute Reginment’s response as “superb”. “They owned the problem and they condemned it. I thought that was magnificent.” 

The BBC site in White City is now mostly used by ITV to film its daytime shows such as Good Morning Britain and This Morning, although the building also contains flats and a private members’ club.

The Loose Women co-host Charlene White thanked the security team who kept the protesters out of the studio while her ITV programme was on air on Monday afternoon.

“Not sure what protesters were hoping to achieve, but all they would’ve found was me, Jane, Nadia and Penny on Loose Women talking about the menopause,” she said.

Serving soldiers were almost unanimously against the pair’s actions, Mr Fox said, which highlighted the ethos of Pegasus, the symbol of British airborne forces since their creation in the Second World War.

“It shows what it means to be a paratrooper; that self-discipline that is expected of all of them. 

“It reflected really well on the Regiment that a very tiny minority were immediately condemned from not only the hierarchy but also the veteran community and, most importantly of all, those still serving.”