‘I’m here to kill the Queen’
Treason court hears what Windsor Castle intruder with loaded crossbow is alleged to have told protection officer
‘Like something out of a vigilante movie’
A FORMER supermarket worker allegedly carried a loaded crossbow into the grounds of Windsor Castle and told a protection officer: ‘I am here to kill the Queen,’ a court heard yesterday.
Jaswant Singh Chail, 20, is charged under the Treason Act after he was arrested on Christmas Day last year close to the 96-year-old monarch’s private residence, where she was staying at the time.
He was wearing a hood and mask and carried a Supersonic X-Bow that was loaded with a bolt and had the safety catch off, Westminster magistrates’ court heard.
Around 8.10am, a protection officer saw Chail by a gate that gives access to the private areas of Windsor Castle Kathryn Selby, prosecuting, said. She said Chail had been dressed ‘like something out of a vigilante movie or for Halloween’ and told the officer: ‘I am here to kill the Queen.’
He was told to drop the weapon and get on his knees before other officers arrived to arrest him, she said.
Bearded Chail, who was unemployed at the time but previously worked for the Co- op, appeared via videolink from Broadmoor high security psychiatric hospital.
The court heard he had previously applied to join the Ministry of Defence Police and the Grenadier Guards, in a bid to get close to the Royal Family.
Wearing a dark jacket over a black top, Chail waved at the court when the link began, then sat at a table with his arms folded. He spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth and address at Broadmoor.
The most serious charge he faces, under Section 2 of the Treason Act, states that ‘at Windsor Castle, near to the person of the Queen, you did wilfully produce or have a loaded crossbow with intent to use the same to injure the person of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, or to alarm her Majesty.’
A separate charge alleges Chail, from Southampton, made ‘a threat intending that the other would fear that it would be carried out to kill a third person, namely Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second.’ A third charge states he had ‘ an offensive weapon, namely a loaded crossbow’ in a public place.
Chail was not asked to enter pleas to any of the charges and Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring remanded him in custody ahead of his next appearance at the Old Bailey on September 14.
In 1981, Marcus Sarjeant was jailed for five years under the same 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 Queen had been staying at Windsor Castle for Christmas last year rather than spending the festive period at the Sandringham estate in Norfolk as usual. She was due to be joined for lunch by Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, as well as the Earl and Countess of Wessex.
It was the Queen’s first Christmas without her husband Prince Philip, who had died in April aged 1999, and a tribute to him was broadcast later that day in her emotional Christmas address to the nation.