A man appeared in court on Wednesday after he allegedly entered the Windsor Castle grounds armed with a crossbow, announcing that he planned to kill Queen Elizabeth II. Jaswant Singh Chail, 20, from Southampton in southern England, was produced in a London court earlier this month after being charged with sedition.
He appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court via video-link from Broadmoor High-Security Psychiatric Hospital, which confirmed his name and location.
Prosecutors told the court that the Chail was held on Christmas Day last year on the grounds of Windsor Castle, where the monarch was staying.
Prosecutor Katherine Selby said wearing a hood and mask and carrying a loaded crossbow with safety grips, Chail came into sight of the Queen’s apartment.
Chail reportedly told a security officer: “I have come here to kill Rani.”
The most serious charge before him under the 180-year-old sedition act is “intent to injure the person of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, or to alert Her Majesty…”.
In the last such case, Britain’s Marcus Sargent was jailed for five years in 1981 after he was found guilty of firing blank shots at the monarch during a parade.
Chail is also accused of making death threats and possessing objectionable weapons.
The unemployed former supermarket worker was not required to enter pleas.
The prosecutor said Chail was investigated by the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command, but his actions were not being treated as terrorism.
Prosecutors said he had previously attempted to join the Ministry of Defense Police and the Grenadier Guards Infantry Regiment to get closer to the royal family.
He had allegedly planned the attack to avenge the treatment of the Indians and sent a video saying that he would kill the queen.
Chail will be kept in custody till his next appearance in the court on September 14.
The incident occurred as the Queen spent Christmas Day at the palace with her eldest son and heir, Prince Charles, and his wife Camilla.
Although the intruder was quickly apprehended, it recalled an earlier, more serious incursion in 1982.
On that occasion, a man aged 30 entered the Queen’s private chambers at Buckingham Palace while she was in bed before being arrested by police.
In the summer of 2019, a man was arrested by climbing the gates of Buckingham Palace.
In 2018, a homeless man carved his walls and slept in the field before being caught.