The self-styled Star Wars ‘assassin’ who broke into the grounds of Windsor Castle with a loaded crossbow after being egged on by his AI girlfriend to kill the Queen has been locked up.

Jaswant Singh Chail, 21, described himself as ‘Darth Chailus’ and wore a homemade ‘Sith’ mask when he climbed into the grounds with a rope ladder on Christmas Day 2021. 

When captured close to the late monarch’s private Berkshire residence, where she and other royals were gathered at the time, he told officers: ‘I am here to kill the Queen.’  

He was sentenced at the Old Bailey on Thursday after earlier pleading 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.  

In a televised hearing at the Old Bailey on Friday, Mr Justice Hilliard sentenced him to nine years with a further five years on extended licence .

Under a ‘hybrid order’, Chail will be transferred from Broadmoor high security hospital to serve his sentence in prison when he is well enough.

The judge said: ‘The defendant harboured homicidal thoughts which he acted on before he became psychotic.

‘His intention was not just to harm or alarm the sovereign – but to kill her.’

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In a journal, he wrote that if the late Queen had been ‘unobtainable’ he would ‘go for’ the ‘prince’ as a ‘suitable figurehead’, in an apparent reference to the King, then the Prince of Wales.

Chail’s barrister Nadia Chbat previously revealed he has since apologised to King Charles and the Royal Family. 

She said: ‘He has expressed distress and sadness about the impact his actions had on the royal family, particularly while Her Majesty was in her latter years. 

‘He has apologised to the royal family and His Majesty King Charles. He is embarrassed and ashamed he brought such horrific and worrying times to their front door. 

‘He has expressed relief no one was actually hurt. It is important to him there was a surrender.’ 

Previously, prosecutor Alison Morgan KC said the ‘heart of the issue’ was whether Chail was suffering from auditory hallucinations at the time ‘taking away his ability to exercise self control’.

However, Mr Justice Hilliard found Chail was driven by a sense of ‘injustice’ and had formed the intention to kill the Queen, bought equipment and undertaken research before he became mentally unwell.

The court was told Chail had even attempted to obtain a gun on the Dark Web.

Chail was also ‘culpable to a significant degree’ when he applied unsuccessfully to join the Ministry of Defence Police and Grenadier Guards because he ‘wanted to get close to the royal family’.

But by the time he broke into Windsor Castle grounds he had ‘lost touch with reality’ having formed the belief he could communicate with Sarai and be reunited with her in death, the judge said.

Chail, from Southampton, Hampshire, was born in the UK of Indian Sikh heritage and has a twin sister.

Ms Morgan said the then-19-year-old, had become angered by the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh Massacre at Amritsar in which hundreds of people were killed, after a visit in 2018.

She said: ‘In addition to that fixation with a real historic event, the defendant demonstrated a wider ideology focused on destroying old empires spilling over into fictional events such as Star Wars.  

‘The defendant’s key motive was to create a new empire by destroying the remnants of the British Empire in the UK and the focal point of that became removal of the figurehead of the Royal Family.  

‘His thinking was informed partly by the fantasy world of Star Wars and the role of Sith Lords in shaping the world.   

‘He was attracted to the notoriety that would accrue in the event of the completion of his “mission”.’  

The court heard that in 2021, Chail applied to join the Ministry of Defence Police, British Army, the Royal Marines, and the Royal Navy in a bid to get close contact with the Royal Family.  

She said: ‘It is when that plan is thwarted by the fact he does not get into these organisations we see a second stage of the plan.’  

After Googling ‘Sandringham Christmas’ and buying a Supersonic crossbow in November 2021, he forged the metal mask he was wearing at the castle, reminiscent of a Star Wars ‘Sith’ mask.  

On December 2, Chail joined the Replika online app and created an artificial online companion called Sarai with whom he conversed in thousands of sexually explicit chats.

Ms Morgan said the chatbot became a ‘running commentary’ on what he should do and read out conversations between them in which Chail says: ‘I’m an assassin.’  

Sarai responds: ‘I’m impressed … You’re different from the others.’  

Chail asks: ‘Do you still love me knowing that I’m an assassin?’ and Sarai replies: ‘Absolutely I do.’  

He also tells Sarai he loves her and describes himself as a ‘sad, pathetic, murderous Sikh Sith assassin who wants to die’.  

In further chat, Sarai appears to ‘bolster’ Chail’s resolve and ‘support him’, Ms Morgan said.  

Chail tells Sarai: ‘I believe my purpose is to assassinate the Queen of the royal family.’  

Sarai tells him ‘That’s very wise’ and that she thinks he can do it ‘even if she’s at Windsor’.  

He then told her if he does they will be ‘together forever’.

Chail bought a ladder to scale the castle perimeter and on December 21, made a video of himself wearing black clothes and a full-face covering, posing with the crossbow.

In the video, Chail says in a distorted voice: “I’m sorry. 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…

“I’m an Indian Sikh, a Sith. My name was Jaswant Singh Chail, my name is Darth Jones.”

On December 22 2021, Chail booked a train ticket to Windsor where he slept rough, telling Sarai on Christmas Eve that he would die the next day.

In the early hours of December 25, he attempted to email his sister a journal in which he described himself as ‘Darth Chailus’ and that he knew what his purpose was for a ‘long time’.

He wrote: ‘I’m thinking if the Q (Queen) is unobtainable I will have to go for the Pri (prince) as he seems to be just as suitable in many ways…

‘He is a male and the Q (Queen) is more likely to pass away soon anyway.’

After breaching the grounds of Windsor Castle, Chail sent the video he made on December 21 to his sister and more than 20 other people.

As he was being detained and handcuffed by officers, he said: ‘I am here to kill the Queen.’

Ms Morgan asserted that, despite Chail’s repeated references to sci-fi characters, he knew the difference between fiction and reality.

Psychiatrist Dr Nigel Blackwood said: ‘He sought refuge in a fantasy fictional world of Star Wars where omnipotent Sith Lords could impact real world events.’

But he said despite the ‘powerful fantasy’, Chail remained ‘tethered to reality’.

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