On Christmas Day, a Briton tries to get into Windsor Castle. "I'm here to kill the queen," he said, according to prosecutors. At the start of the process in London, the 20-year-old was switched on from a high-security psychiatric facility.
A Briton who had entered the grounds of Windsor Castle armed with a crossbow and was arrested has had to answer in court since Wednesday. Shortly after his arrest, the 20-year-old said to a security officer, "I'm here to kill the Queen," prosecutor Kathryn Selby said outside Westminster Magistrates' Court in London.
The unemployed ex-supermarket worker from Southampton joined the hearing via video link from the Broadmoor maximum security psychiatric facility. He is charged under the Treason Act 1842. The High Treason Act criminalizes attempting to "hurt or harm Her Majesty." The 20-year-old is also charged with making death threats and illegally possessing a gun. Initially, the police had also investigated suspected terrorism, but the suspicion had not been substantiated, said the prosecutor.
According to the indictment, the man entered the castle grounds on Christmas Day last year with a loaded, unlocked crossbow. He was already within sight of the Queen's chambers when he was arrested. His gun could have caused "serious injuries or death," prosecutor Selby said.
According to the public prosecutor, the accused sent a video to around 20 people shortly before the crime, in which he announced his attempted murder. The newspaper "The Sun" had published footage from the online service Snapchat that allegedly shows the intruder a few minutes before the incident in a black hoodie and white mask. In the video, the man says, "I'm sorry for what I've done and what I'm going to do. I'm going to try to assassinate Queen Elizabeth." The man justified his project with a massacre that British soldiers had committed in 1919 on demonstrators in India. He wants to take "revenge" for this violence.
According to prosecutors, before the crime the man tried to join the police department at the Ministry of Defense and the Grenadier Guards, a regiment of the Army's Guards Division, in order to get closer to the royal family. He remains in custody until the next court date on September 14.
The Treason Act is rarely used today. Most recently, Briton Marcus Sarjeant was sentenced to five years in prison in 1981 after pleading guilty to firing five shots at the monarch during a parade.
