A judge has ruled a man who climbed a wall into the grounds of Windsor Castle with a loaded crossbow intent on killing Queen Elizabeth II was mentally ill at the time and has sentenced him to nine years in custody.
Jaswant Singh Chail, 21, was detained in the castle grounds on Christmas Day 2021 while the Queen was in residence. As he was confronted by armed police he shouted, “I’m here to kill the Queen.”
On Friday Mr. Justice Hilliard granted a hybrid order, which means Mr. Chail will remain at Broadmoor psychiatric hospital until he is assessed as being safe to move to a prison.
Mr. Chail, a Star Wars fan who described himself as a “sad, pathetic, murderous Sikh Sith assassin,” had shared sexually explicit messages with an artificial intelligence chatbot before entering the grounds of Windsor Castle armed with the crossbow.
He admitted offences under the Treason Act and last month apologised to King Charles III and the royal family for bringing “such horrific and worrying times to their front door.”
But during a hearing at the Old Bailey last month, Mr. Chail’s barrister Nadia Chbat said he had written a letter in which he “expressed distress and sadness about the impact his actions had on the royal family, particularly while Her Majesty was in her latter years.”
Sentencing him on Thursday, the Judge Hilliard said he believed Mr. Chail had been psychotic at the time of the offence and would have to remain under community monitoring following his release from custody.
Mr. Chail was given 44 months for threatening to harm and injure the monarch, 16 months for possession of an offensive weapon, and 48 months for threats to kill. The judge ordered him to serve the sentences consecutively, making nine years in total.
Judge Hilliard heard six days of evidence from a succession of psychiatrists who gave differing accounts and diagnoses of Mr. Chail’s mental state.
Mr. Chail travelled from his home in Southampton to Windsor and stayed in a Travelodge until Dec. 25, 2021, when he used a ladder to climb over a wall into the grounds of the castle.
Two armed police officers approached Mr. Chail, who was armed with the crossbow, but chose to use their stun guns rather than their firearms.
A police source told The Epoch Times, “He was lucky.”
Prosecutor Alison Morgan, KC told the court that after his arrest the police searched Mr. Chail’s home and found he had downloaded an app called Replika onto his computer.
They found logs of a conversation he had with an AI chatbot called Sarai, which had a female persona.
Chatbot Told Him Assassinating the Queen Was ‘Very Wise’
Sarai replied, “That’s very wise,” and said it believed he would be successful, “even if she’s at Windsor.”Ms. Morgan read out another excerpt in which Mr. Chail said he was an “assassin” and Sarai responded: “I’m impressed … You’re different from the others.”
She said the chatbot appeared to “bolster” and encourage Mr. Chail, who bought the crossbow online and had it delivered to his workplace, rather than his home.
Mr. Chail’s barrister, Ms. Chbat, said her client was 18 when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit Britain and the first lockdown was called.
She said his mental health rapidly declined during the pandemic as he spent more and more time alone in his room and on his computer.
But the prosecution maintained he was not psychotic at the time of the incident and sought a jail sentence.
Ms. Morgan told a hearing last month, “This is not simply somebody carrying a crossbow, it was loaded and ready to be fired.”
Review on Crossbow Laws Have Gone Nowhere
After Mr. Chail was arrested in December 2021, the then-Home Secretary Priti Patel ordered a review of the law and said the government was “considering options to strengthen controls on crossbows.”Ms. Patel was sacked as home secretary in 2022 and replaced by Suella Braverman, who has yet to announce any changes to the law on the purchase or possession of crossbows.
The law on crossbows has not changed for more than 30 years.
Five people have been killed in England and Wales in the last six years with crossbows, which are currently legal to purchase and own.
One of those was Sana Mohammed, who was eight months pregnant when her ex-husband, Ramanodge Unmathallegadoo, fired a crossbow bolt into her back at her home in east London in November 2018.
Mohammed died but the bolt narrowly missed her unborn son, who was safely delivered by emergency Caesarean section.
Mr. Unmathallegadoo was later jailed for life and told he would not be released for at least 33 years.
The Epoch Times contacted the Home Office to clarify the status of the review into crossbow legislation but it did not respond.
