David Beckham’s former body guard now living at Heathrow Airport

 

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A HOMELESS Army veteran who once worked as David Beckham’s bodyguard has been inspired by the Tom Hanks film The Terminal to make his home in Heathrow Airport. Simon Jones – not his real name – has spent almost a month living at Heathrow.

He was forced to take the extreme measure after his business collapsed. With his relationship over, homeless and penniless, he went to Britain’s busiest airport after remembering the Tom Hanks blockbuster.

In the 2004 film Hanks played Viktor Navorski, an eastern European who lived at New York’s JFK airport when war broke out in his home country, leaving him stateless.

Mr Jones, 46, has spent the past three weeks at the airport, living on scraps discarded by customers at its many cafes. He has used toilet facilities for washing and the airport’s free wi-fi to try to seek work.

Alarmingly, not a single airport official or armed police officer stopped or questioned him despite regularly walking past him.

Mr Jones, a former member of the Parachute Regiment, served in Northern Ireland before working in private security. He spent several years as bodyguard to David and Victoria Beckham and three of their children, Brooklyn, Romeo and Cruz.

The distinguished soldier has also served in Angola, Iraq, Nigeria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Israel ensuring the security of the Saudi royal family, high-profile US diplomats and senior British politicians including David Cameron.

Part of his training was given by Metropolitan Police counter-terror experts.

Speaking last night under condition of anonymity, Mr Jones said: “I suddenly lost everything when my business, which provided high-risk assignments and the training of personnel, collapsed. “Three creditors owed me a total of almost £50,000. I took them to court but they just declared themselves bankrupt. The really painful part is that at least two of them started training again a few weeks later under slightly different names.

“The business put an enormous strain on my relationship and we separated. I was suddenly homeless and, because all the bank accounts were in joint names, penniless.”

Of how he decided to head for Heathrow Airport, he said: “I was mulling over what to do. I don’t want to be a burden on anybody, so felt I couldn’t stay on friends’ floors for more than a night or two, especially since I can’t pay my way.