UK man charged under Treason Act over crossbow threat to Queen Elizabeth
- Jaswant Singh Chail, 20, was arrested while armed with the weapon at Windsor Castle, where the monarch was spending Christmas Day
- It is extremely rare for charges to be brought under this particular 180-year-old treason law
Police charged a 20-year-old man with an offence under Britain’s 1842 Treason Act after arresting him armed with a crossbow at Windsor Castle as Queen Elizabeth spent Christmas Day there.
Jaswant Singh Chail, from Southampton in southern England, has also been charged with making threats to kill and possession of an offensive weapon following the incident at the castle, southwest of London, last year.
He is currently in custody and will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in the British capital on August 17, London’s Metropolitan Police said on Tuesday.
“The CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) has authorised the Metropolitan Police to charge Jaswant Singh Chail with offences after he was arrested in the grounds of Windsor Castle on 25 December 2021 carrying a crossbow,” Nick Price of the CPS, which oversees prosecutions in England and Wales, said.
“This decision has been made following an investigation carried out by the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command,” he added.
Chail has been charged under a section of the Treason Act, which makes it an offence to assault the queen, or have a firearm or offensive weapon in her presence with intent to injure or alarm her, or to cause a breach of peace.