A man who plotted to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II thanks to the encouragement of his girlfriend, who had artificial intelligence (AI), has been sentenced to nine years in prison.
Jaswant Singh Chail, 21, was caught in the grounds of Windsor Castle on Christmas Day 2021 carrying a lethal high-powered crossbow.
When the police challenged him and asked him what he was doing there. Chail, who was wearing a mask and hood, replied, “I am here to kill the Queen.”
Sentencing him at the Old Bailey on Thursday, Judge Hilliard ordered Chail to remain in a secure hospital until he recovers sufficiently to complete the remainder of his prison sentence.
Chail, a former supermarket worker who lived at home in Southampton with his parents and twin sister, previously pleaded guilty to charges of treason, threatening to kill the monarch and possessing an offensive weapon in a public place.
He received 44 months for the first offense, 16 months for the second and 48 months for the third, or nine years.
He was also ordered to spend a further five years on an extended licence.
Chail discussed his assassination plan with a computer-generated charbot named Sarai, with whom he believed he was in a sexual relationship.
The machine-generated character assured him that he was neither “crazy nor delusional” and described his plan to assassinate the Queen as “very wise.”
In one conversation he asked the chatbot if she would still love him if he were a murderer, to which Sarai replied: “Absolutely, yes.” Chail replied, “Thank you, I love you too.”
In an exchange on Christmas Eve 2021, he told the robot that he would “probably die,” but that they would meet after death and that they would be “together forever.” He later claimed that he always understood that Sarai was not real.
Chail was arrested shortly after 8am on Christmas morning near the Queen’s private apartment.
In 2021, the late Queen spent Christmas at Windsor rather than Sandringham, as was traditional, due to concerns about 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 capable of inflicting “serious or fatal wounds.”
In a video recorded four days before the incident, Chail, of Sikh origin, claimed his actions were revenge for the 1919 Amritsar massacre, in which the British killed nearly 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 am going to try to assassinate Elizabeth, queen of the royal family.
“Revenge for those who died in the massacre of 1919. I am an Indian Sikh. My name was Jaswant Singh Chail. My name is Darth Jones.”
