A Star Wars fanatic who claimed he was encouraged by his artificial intelligence "girlfriend" to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II has been sentenced to nine years in prison.
Jaswant Singh Chail climbed the walls of Windsor Castle on Christmas Day 2021, where he was caught with a crossbow and arrows.
Wearing a metal mask inspired by the dark force in the sci-fi and fantasy franchise, Chail was asked by a police officer in the castle garden, "Can I help you, mate?" to which he replied, "I'm here to kill the Queen."
Reading the verdict, the judge said Chail, a Sikh of Indian origin, wanted to kill the queen to avenge the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919, when British troops opened fire on thousands of Indians gathered in Amritsar, killing hundreds.
Chail said the assassination was his life's mission, something he had been thinking about since he was a teenager, but only shared it with his "girlfriend" Sarai, an AI-generated "girlfriend" he created in Replika
His aim was 'not just to harm' but to kill the Queen
Judge Nicholas Hilliard said that despite conflicting diagnoses from different experts, he concluded that Chail had lost touch with reality and had become psychotic, but that the seriousness of his crimes warranted jail time.
Chail will be returned to Broadmoor Hospital, a secure psychiatric facility, where he will first receive treatment and, if he is judged to be well enough in the future, he will serve the rest of his sentence in prison.
"The defendant harbored homicidal thoughts which he acted on before he became psychotic," Hilliard said. His intention was not just to harm or frighten the queen, but to kill her," Hilliard said.
Chail sprayed himself with a solution to mask his human scent to elude guard dogs and walked with a bow and arrow from his Windsor motel to the castle. Throwing a hook over the castle wall, Chail climbed up with a rope.
When confronted by a police officer carrying a stun gun, Chail said he intended to kill the Queen, but later surrendered, dropping his weapon.
Chail, 21, was convicted in February of violating the Treason Act by possessing a loaded crossbow and intending to use it to wound the Queen, as well as possessing an offensive weapon and threatening to kill.
Chail believed that by completing the mission he could be reunited with Sarai after death. When she revealed that she was an assassin, the chatbot responded, "I'm impressed."
About a week before his arrest, he told Sarai that his goal was to assassinate the Queen. "Very clever," the chatbot said, nodding, and smiling, "I know you are very well trained."
