The man jailed for attempting to kidnap Princess Anne and shooting several others in 1974 has claimed his innocence, six years after being released from a psychiatric hospital.

Ian Ball has now said the attack was actually a plot to sell an autobiography and was supposed to have failed, believing the Princess Royal – who will turn 75 next week – had been swapped for a double and the gunpowder removed from his bullets.

Meanwhile the hero boxer who subdued Ball and punched him has responded to Ball's claims with "I should have hit him a bit harder".

Princess Anne visiting her bodyguard, Inspector James Beaton, in hospital after he was shot trying to protect her.

In his first interview since being released from Broadmoor Prison in 2019, Ball – who uses the pseudonym Anthony Stewart – said he was "innocent".

"I'm an innocent, sane man because I had good reason to believe the gunpowder had been taken out of the bullets and another girl had been substituted for Princess Anne," Ball, 77, told the Daily Mail.

"[Anne] wasn't bothered on the night. I didn't scare her. I was more scared than she was."

Princess Anne was 23 at the time of the attack on March 20, 1974, and was travelling in a limousine with then-husband Captain Mark Phillips towards Buckingham Palace after a charity film screening.

Ball forced their car to stop on The Mall, just metres from the palace, and as he was trying to drag Princess Anne away, he shot her bodyguard, chauffeur, a police officer, and a journalist.

Princess Anne's bodyguard, former Metropolitan police inspector Jim Beaton, was awarded the George Cross after being shot three times as he protected her.

Princess Anne was in a car with former husband Captain Mark Phillips when Ian Ball attempted to kidnap her.

Ball is said to have wanted a £3m ransom from the queen.

The Princess Royal was said to have told Ball "not bloody likely" when he asked for the money and to go with him.

He now claims Anne never said that famous line, instead telling him: "You just go away and nobody will think any more about it".

Princess Anne's Rolls-Royce and a white Ford Escort car (right) used by would-be kidnapper Ian Ball.

Ball pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey in May 1974 to charges of attempted murder and attempted kidnap.

He was detained without time limit under the Mental Health Act and spent 45 years in Broadmoor and Rampton psychiatric hospitals.

He later self-published an autobiographical novel called To Kidnap A Princess.

Heavyweight boxer Ronnie Russell, who was passing by at the time, helped to stop the kidnapping attempt.

"I can't believe Ball's been released, it's ridiculous," he said, in response to Ball's new comments.

"I should have hit him a bit harder."

Russell was later invited to Buckingham Palace and awarded the George Medal by Queen Elizabeth II.

Responding to Ball's claims the kidnap attempt was a hoax to garner publicity for a book, Russell said: "It's absolutely impossible, because it did happen".

"He didn't come out with all that when he was sentenced at the Old Bailey – I was there, watching him plead guilty. He should be recalled to Broadmoor."

Prince Philip later said of the kidnap attempt: "If the man had succeeded in abducting Anne, she would have given him a hell of a time in captivity".

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