Following an incident on Christmas Day at Windsor Castle, a 20-year-old man has been charged under the Treason Act with attempting to harm or frighten the Queen.
Jaswant Singh Chail was accused of violating the more than 40-year-old offence of “discharging or aiming firearms, or throwing or using any offensive matter or weapon, with the intent to injure or alarm Her Majesty” under Section 2 of the Treason Act of 1842.
In addition, Chail, of Southampton, is accused of making threats to kill in violation of Section 16 of the Offenses Against Person Act 1861.
He has also been accused of violating section one of the Prevention of Crime Act of 1953 by possessing an offensive weapon.
Ahead of a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on August 17, Chail is now in custody.
The Metropolitan Police announced that Chail had been charged after its Counter Terrorism Command looked into an incident that occurred on Christmas Day of last year within the grounds of Windsor Castle.
Nick Price, head of the Crown Prosecution’s Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said it has authorised the Met to charge Chail ‘after he was arrested in the grounds of Windsor Castle on December 25, 2021 carrying a crossbow’
When Marcus Sarjeant was likewise accused of attempting to harm Elizabeth II more than 40 years ago, the act was last used to prosecute a person.
In 1981, while Trooping the Colour in London, he fired six blank shots at the Queen as she rode along The Mall.
This clause of the Treason Act of 1842, which was put into effect during the reign of Queen Victoria after two men shot at her in the course of two days that same year, is still in effect today.
As Victoria rode in a carriage down The Mall in the heart of London, one man, John Francis, pointed a gun at her but did not fire.
The following day, she walked outside once more to tempt Francis to try again. He succeeded in firing a shot at the monarch, but he was taken into custody by officers in plain clothes.
John William Bean attacked the Queen with a handgun two days later, but it was merely loaded with paper and tobacco.
Prince Albert urged Parliament to pass a legislation suiting minor offences against the monarch, such as intent to alarm or wound, because he believed the death penalty was too severe.
It established a new crime of assaulting the Queen or possessing a firearm or other offensive weapon in her presence with the purpose to harm, terrify, or disturb the peace, which is less serious than high treason.
After pleading guilty to shooting blank shots at Elizabeth II when she was on parade, Sarjeant was given a five-year prison sentence.