Door Closed Situation
 

Help.... At my father-in-laws wedding this weekend........it appear someone was mankeying around my 2004 Mini....... and tried rather forcefully to open a locked passenger door. The locking mechanism appear to work..... the knob moves up and down but the close in closed and will not open.........the interior handle move fully but has no resistance and the exterior handle does not appear to be fully retracted,,,, Leading me to believe the culprit horqured on the handle until something bent or broke on the opening linkage to the jamb.
At any rate I cannot get the door open and hence cannot remove the interior cover panel to gain access to the linkage to fix the problem.......
Does anyone have any idea on how I might either get the door open or get the panel off with the door closed.......

Sincerely
C