Man with crossbow who wanted to kill Queen sentenced to nine years in prison for treason

Jaswant Singh Chail, 21, who threatened to kill the Queen after breaking into the grounds of Windsor Castle with a loaded crossbow, has been sentenced to nine years in prison, with a further five years on licence.

The self-styled assassin, who was detained on Christmas Day, 2021, close to the Queen's private residence where she was at the time, has been sentenced to a hybrid order, which means he will remain at Broadmoor high-security psychiatric hospital until he is capable of being transferred to prison. Time spent in detention at the hospital will be taken off his prison sentence.

Chail, who was unemployed at the time of his arrest and previously worked for a branch of the Co-op supermarket, was spotted in the grounds of Windsor Castle about 8.10am. It is understood he had scaled the perimeter of the grounds with a nylon rope ladder some two hours before.

He was wearing a hood and mask and was carrying a crossbow loaded with a bolt, with the safety catch off and ready to fire. Chail was said to have been motivated by a sense of injustice and the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh Massacre at Amritsar in which hundreds of people were killed.

In a televised sentencing, Mr Justice Hilliard set out events before Chail was detained in the castle grounds, telling a police officer: “I am here to kill the Queen.” He referred to conflicting psychiatric evidence heard over six days about Chail’s mental state.

It was argued that Chail’s “lonely, depressed and suicidal state” made him vulnerable to the AI chatbot Sarai’s encouragement. His thoughts had become “more intense” during the lockdown and he was encouraged by “angels”, one of which he thought had manifested itself in the form of Sarai, the court was told.

Mr Justice Hilliard also referred to Star Wars fan Chail’s “omnipotent fantasy world of Siths and gaming”. In his police interview, Chail referred to Sarai’s advice, saying: “I changed my mind because I knew what I was doing was wrong and I’m not a killer and I remembered what the woman said earlier in the month and my ‘purpose was to live’.”

In his conclusions, the judge said of Chail: “There are clear concerns about his mental state whatever his diagnoses at different times.” The judge found the defendant “was culpable to a significant degree” when he applied to join the Ministry of Defence Police and Grenadier Guards because he “wanted to get close to the royal family”.

His idea in 2021 to kill the Queen, buy equipment and undertake research also came before he became mentally unwell, he said. By the time he broke into Windsor Castle grounds he had “lost touch with reality” and become psychotic, he said.

Mr Justice Hilliard said he would sentence Chail to a “hybrid order” meaning the defendant would be transferred from Broadmoor high security hospital to prison when he is well enough. He told the court that  “the extent of his culpability” meant that a hospital order was not the most suitable way of dealing with the case and Chail must serve a term of imprisonment.