July 5, 2023, 9:00 PM
July 5, 2023, 9:00 PM
Maria Zaccaro, Nick Johnson and PA Media
The man who came armed with a crossbow to Windsor Palace to “murder” Queen Elizabeth II was inspired, in part, by the Star Wars movies, a British court that must sentence him has been told.
The arrest of Jaswant Singh Chail, a 21-year-old from Hampshire, occurred on Christmas Day 2021, when Elizabeth II was living in Windsor due to the covid-19 pandemic.
The young man admitted to a charge under the Treason Law, and also admitted to making death threats and possessing an offensive weapon.
The jury also learned that Chail he had tried to get closer to the royal family before.
During the sentencing hearings, it became known that the suspect had been applying for jobs in the military that they could bring him to be close to the queen.
The young man who worked in a supermarket showed that he had an ideology focused on the destruction of old empires and the creation of a new onein which he included a fictional context such as that of Star Wars.
In a video, Chail he had described himself at times as a “Sith” and “Darth Jones” and he said he had entrusted his murderous plan to an artificial intelligence with which he interacted.
He said that if the queen was “unreachable”, he would “target” the prince as a “suitable alternate figure”, in an apparent reference to King Charles III.
Prosecutor Alison Morgan said that Chail had applied for positions in the royal police, army, navy and navybut was rejected in all.
Said Chail was “concerned” by the “injustice” of the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacrein which British troops opened fire on thousands of people who had gathered in the city of Amritsar, India.
Chail was born in the UK but his family is of Indian origin.
In a video played before the court, Chail, who was 19 when the events occurred, appeared dressed all in black, wearing a mask and crossbow in hand.
Pulling straight into the camera, he said: “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for what I’ve done, and I’m sorry for what I’m going to do.”
“I will attempt to assassinate Queen Elizabeth of the royal family”.
“It is revenge for those who died in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919”.
“It is also a revenge for those who have been killed, humiliated and discriminated against because of their race.”
Prosecutor Morgan said that “the defendant’s main motivation was to create a new empire, by destroying what is left of the British empire in the UK”, and “the focal point of that ended up being the removal of the head of the royal family. ”.
In addition, he added that he believed that his ideas were based, in part, on the fantasy world of Star Wars and “the role of the Sith masters – maximum villains of the Star Wars universe – in shaping the world.”
“He was drawn to the notoriety that would come to him if he completed his ‘mission,'” he added.
Morgan said that despite the continual references to science fiction characters, the defendant knew very well the difference between fact and fiction.
A royal protection officer saw Chail in a private section of the castle at around 08:10 pm local time on December 25, 2021.
The mask Chail wore for the act was described in court as “something out of a mercenary movie.”
He told the officer who captured him that he was there to “kill the queen”.
your mental health
After being arrested, she recognized that she needed help with her mental health.
He told a nurse that he did not consider himself suicidal, and that he did not know that there were mental problems in his immediate family.
In February 2022, he was deemed fit for questioning.
In court, Chail was said to have said that he had realized that “I was wrong” and that he was not “a murderer”.
An initial medical evaluation concluded that the defendant was in need of “long-term care from the forensic psychiatric service.”
He lied to his family about where he went on the days before Christmas. His sister believed that Chail was going to “army training.”
Before the court it was said that this suggested that the defendant “had not lost touch with reality”but which had started to become depressed towards the end of 2021.
Under the Treason Act 1841, it is an offense to assault the monarch, or to have an offensive weapon with the intent to injure, alarm, or cause a disturbance of the peace.
In 1981, Marcus Serjeant was sentenced to 5 years in jail under the Treason Act, after firing blank shots at the Queen as she was taking part in a parade on the Mall in London.
The sentencing hearings must continue.
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