A man has been sentenced to nine years in prison after being arrested on the grounds of Windsor Castle with plans to assassinate the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Jaswant Singh Chail appeared at The Old Bailey on October 5th 2023 to learn his fate after he was arrested on Christmas morning 2021 with a crossbow. Chail is the first person in the United Kingdom to be convicted of treason since 1981 and also pled guilty to charges of making threats to kill and offensive weapon possession.
Chail was sentenced on live television, with the presiding judge, Judge Justice Hilliard, revealing that Chail meant to kill Elizabeth II that morning after experiencing a psychotic episode and that his crime was “as serious as it could be.”
The courts revealed that Chail had been conversing with an artificial intelligence chatbot he considered his girlfriend, Sarai, and was convinced to attempt to kill the late queen after talking to the program.
On Christmas morning 2021, he was arrested after wandering the grounds of Windsor Castle for two hours but surrendered immediately after police approached him.
Chail was found to also be interested in storylines based on destroying old empires and starting new ones—based on an interest in Star Wars—and told the chatbot program that he was a ‘Sith’ assassin, but after the program responded that he should live, he decided to surrender to the Royal Protection Officers.
The courts found that Chail had also applied to join both the Grenadier Guards and the Ministry of Defence Police in a bid to get closer to the Royal Family, though these applications were rejected and that he had searched ‘Sandringham Christmas’ online.
Chail was sentenced to nine years in prison for his crimes and a further five years on extended licence.
The last person convicted of treason in the United Kingdom was Marcus Sarjeant, who was sentenced to five years in prison after firing blanks at Queen Elizabeth II during Trooping the Colour in 1981.
