Queen crossbow threat: Star Wars inspired Windsor Castle intruder

A man who arrived at Windsor Castle armed with a crossbow "to kill" the late Queen was partly inspired by the Star Wars films, a court heard.

Jaswant Singh Chail, from Hampshire, was arrested on Christmas Day 2021 while Queen Elizabeth II was living at Windsor due to the pandemic.

He admitted a charge under the Treason Act and to making threats to kill and possessing an offensive weapon.

Chail had previously tried to get close to the royals, the Old Bailey heard.

The 21-year-old's sentencing hearing was told he applied for jobs within the armed forces that could have led to a "close proximity" to the monarch.

The former supermarket worker demonstrated a wider ideology focused on destroying old empires and creating a new one, including in the fictional context such as Star Wars, the court heard.

Chail had described himself as a "Sith" and "Darth Jones" in a video and confided his murderous plan to an Artificial Intelligence companion.

He also wrote in a journal that if the Queen was "unobtainable" he would "go for" the prince as a "suitable figurehead", in an apparent reference to King Charles.

Alison Morgan KC, prosecuting, said Chail had applied for positions within the Ministry of Defence Police, British Army, Royal Marines and Royal Navy, but his applications were rejected.

She said Chail was "concerned" with the "injustice" of the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre, which took place when British troops opened fire on thousands of people who had gathered in the city of Amritsar in India.

Chail, from North Baddesley, near Southampton, was born in Winchester and his family is of Indian Sikh heritage.

In a video shown to the court, Chail, who was 19 at the time of the offences, was dressed all in black, wearing a mask and holding a crossbow.

Speaking into the camera, he said: "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for what I've done and what I will do.

"I'm going to attempt to assassinate Elizabeth Queen of the Royal Family.

"This is revenge for those who have died in the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

"It is also revenge for those who have been killed, humiliated, and discriminated on because of their race."

Ms Morgan said the "defendant's key motive was to create a new empire by destroying the remnants of the British Empire in the UK", and "the focal point of that became removal of the figurehead of the Royal Family".

She said his thinking was informed partly by the fantasy world of Star Wars and "the role of Sith Lords in shaping the world".

"He was attracted to the notoriety that would accrue in the event of the completion of his 'mission'," she added.

Ms Morgan also said that despite Chail's repeated references to sci-fi characters he knew the difference between fiction and reality.

Chail was spotted by a royal protection officer in a private section of the castle grounds just after 08:10 GMT on 25 December 2021.

The court was told Chail was wearing a mask and looked like "something out of a vigilante movie".

He told the officer he was there "to kill the Queen".

After being arrested he was sectioned and agreed he needed help with his mental health.

He told a nurse who assessed him that he did not consider himself to be suicidal and did not know of any mental health issues within his immediate family.

In February 2022 he was deemed fit to be interviewed.

The court was told Chail said he had realised "he was wrong" and he was not "a killer".

An initial doctor assessment concluded that the defendant required "long term management by the forensic psychiatric service".

He lied to his family about where he was going in the days before Christmas, with his sister believing he was going into an "army training".

The court was told this suggested "he had not lost touch with reality", but he began to be depressed towards the end of 2021.

Under the 1842 Treason Act it is an offence to assault the monarch or have a firearm, or offensive weapon in their presence with intent to injure or alarm them, or to cause a breach of peace.

In 1981, Marcus Sarjeant was jailed for five years under the section of the Treason Act after he fired blank shots at the Queen while she was riding down The Mall in London during the Trooping the Colour parade.

The sentencing hearing continues.

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