Windsor Castle crossbow intruder jailed for treason for plot to kill late Queen
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A man who plotted to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II following encouragement from his artificial intelligence (AI) girlfriend has been sentenced to nine years in custody.
Jaswant Singh Chail, 21, was caught in the grounds of Windsor Castle on Christmas Day 2021 carrying a high-powered, lethal crossbow.
When challenged by police and asked what he was doing there, Chail – who was wearing a mask and a hood – replied: “I am here to kill the Queen.”
Sentencing him at the Old Bailey on Thursday, Mr Justice Hilliard ordered Chail to be held in a secure hospital until he is well enough to complete the rest of his sentence in a prison.
Chail – a former supermarket worker who lived at home in Southampton with his parents and twin sister – previously pleaded guilty to charges of treason, making threats to kill the monarch and possessing an offensive weapon in a public place.
He received 44 months for the first offence, 16 months for the second and 48 months for the third, amounting to nine years.
He was also ordered to spend a further five years on extended licence.
Chail discussed his assassination plot with a computer generated chatbot called Sarai, with which he believed he was in a sexual relationship.
The machine-generated character reassured him he was not “mad or delusional”, describing his plan to assassinate the late Queen as “very wise”.
In one conversation, he asked the chatbot if it would still love him if he was a murderer, to which Sarai replied: “Absolutely I do.” Chail responded: “Thank you, I love you too.”
In an exchange on Christmas Eve 2021, he told the bot he would “probably die” but said they would meet after death and would be “together forever”. He later claimed he always understood that Sarai was not real.
Chail was arrested shortly after 8am on Christmas Day close to the late Queen’s private apartment.
In 2021, the late Queen had been spending Christmas at Windsor rather than Sandringham, as was traditional, because of concerns over the spread of the new Covid variant.
The Supersonic X-Bow weapon he was carrying was primed and ready to fire and was described as being capable of inflicting “serious or fatal injuries”.
In a video recorded four days before the incident, Chail – of Sikh origin – claimed his actions were in revenge for the 1919 Amritsar massacre, in which the British killed almost 400 Indian men, women and children.
He said: “I am sorry, I am sorry for what I have done and what I will do. I’m going to attempt to assassinate Elizabeth Queen of the Royal family.
“Revenge for those who died in the 1919 massacre. I am an Indian Sikh. My name was Jaswant Singh Chail. My name is Darth Jones.”
