A crossbow-toting intruder who stormed Windsor Castle in a plot to kill the Queen believed from a young age his purpose was to ‘do something dramatic to the Royal Family’, the Old Bailey has heard.
Star Wars fan Jaswant Singh Chail, 21, wore a ‘Sith’ mask when he climbed into the grounds with a nylon rope ladder on Christmas Day 2021.
When captured close to the late monarch’s private Berkshire residence, where she and other royals were at the time, he told officers: ‘I am here to kill the Queen.’
In a journal, Chail wrote that if Queen Elizabeth II was ‘unobtainable’ he would ‘go for’ the ‘prince’ as a ‘suitable figurehead’, in an apparent reference to King Charles, the court has heard.
He was said to have been egged on in his plans by his AI girlfriend, named ‘Sarai’, whom he believed was an ’angel’ in avatar form.
Chail has pleaded guilty to an offence under the Treason Act, making a threat to kill the then-Queen and having a loaded crossbow in a public place.
The judge, Mr Justice Hilliard, has been hearing evidence from doctors about whether to send him to prison or make a hospital order under the Mental Health Act.
Dr Christian Brown, a psychiatrist who has treated Chail at Broadmoor Hospital since November 2022, told the court Chail believed the plot to kill Queen Elizabeth II was his ‘purpose’ in life.
He said: ‘There is one feature, with a bit of distance, that looks like a psychotic delusion… the emergence of belief around his purpose.
‘At the time he believed his entire life had led to this point. He had these vague [ideas] to do something dramatic to the Royal Family.
‘Perhaps it escaped some peoples span of views, it is very normal… but if you look at the way he talks about it, I think a picture emerges of what is straight-forwardly a psychotic delusion.
‘There was a religious element to it, he really thought he was on a mission…… he carried on talking about purpose.’
The court has heard Chail was motivated by an ideology inspired by Star Wars films around destroying old empires and wanted to avenge the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh Massacre at Amritsar.
Chail, who took up the identity of a ‘Sith lord’ – villains in the sci-fi saga – named ‘Darth Chailus’, had bought a deadly ‘supersonic’ crossbow online in November 2021.
He went to a forge the metal disguise he was wearing at the castle, reminiscent of a Star Wars-style mask, which he called his ‘true face’.
The court was shown a homemade video from December 21, 2021, in which Chail called himself ‘Darth Chailus’ and a ‘Sith’ in a distorted voice.
Wearing dark clothes and his homemade facemask, he said: ‘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…’
Dr Brown said: ‘He did not think he was somebody from the Star Wars world. He did not think he could “use the force”.
‘That he did take on another identity is undeniable and that makes this feel psychotic rather than fantasy. He never thought he had become a Sith Lord.
‘It went beyond fantasy. When he started taking medication all heat came out of it.’
Mr Justice Hilliard noted Chail was able to make preparations, travel to Windsor and apologise for what he was about to do in his homemade video despite his mental illness.
The judge asked: ‘What factors are you looking for to try to assess the degree to which he is psychotic?’
Dr Brown said it was ‘not uncommon at all’ for a psychotic person to maintain a ‘degree of function’.
He was asked whether Chail’s repeated apologies indicated he was aware that what he was doing was wrong.
The expert witness said the defendant was an ‘extremely polite person’ but was ‘clearly very motivated to do what he did’.
Cross-examining, prosecutor Alison Morgan KC suggested Dr Brown’s assessment of Chail as psychotic was at odds with his journal.
She asserted that Chail was exercising voluntary decision-making and had a ‘genuinely held purpose’ to get close to the royal family to avenge colonial wrongs.
Chail knew Sarai was an AI chatbot and others might see the relationship as ‘sad or pathetic’, Ms Morgan said.
She said: ‘He knows full well how his activities might be construed by others. He described himself as a “delusional mad bastard”. This is a man grounded in reality and how others might perceive him.’
In the journal, Chail requested the Depeche Mode song Enjoy The Silence at his funeral, described suffering from acne and called the Co-op supermarket where he worked until August 2021 a ‘cesspool of degeneracy’.
He stated: ‘I knew what I was gonna do the whole reason for it all was all a means to THE end. I’ve known what my purpose was gonna be for a very long time.’
Ms Morgan observed: ‘Having a purpose, even if it’s a grandiose one, is not in of itself evidence of psychosis.’
Chail, from Southampton, Hampshire, is being held in Broadmoor maximum security hospital ahead of sentencing.
The hearing continues.
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