Crossbow-wielding Windsor Castle intruder, 19, ‘became withdrawn in lockdown’

The father of a teenager suspected of scaling Windsor Castle armed with a crossbow in a bid to assassinate the Queen had raised concerns that the lockdown had affected his son’s mental health.

Jaswant Singh Chail uploaded a pre-recorded video to Snapchat at 8:06am on Christmas Day, 24 minutes before a man was arrested by police inside the grounds of Windsor Castle.

His father, Jasbir Singh Chail, 57,  had told neighbours at the height of the lockdown that he was concerned about the impact it was having on his son, who was known as Jas, claiming that it had left him ‘isolated and demotivated.’

One neighbour on the private estate where the Chail family live in North Baddesley, just outside Southampton, told MailOnline: ‘The dad would see me doing chores outside my house and would often come over to chat and tell me how envious he was because his son wasn’t do anything around the house.

‘He mentioned a few times how difficult it was getting his son involved in anything positive or trying to motivate him and was blaming the lockdown. The dad told me that his son was spending more time alone in his room on social media and the lockdown had made this worse.’

The neighbour, who did not want to be named, added: ‘I think the lockdown was quite frustrating for the dad as it was for the parents of a lot of teenagers. From what I could gather, Jas wasn’t doing anything constructive throughout the lockdown’

Another neighbour added: ‘The dad seemed a bit worried about his son and said that he was quite demotivated and isolated. I just put it down to parents moaning about their teenage kids but the lockdown definitely made it worse for the family.’

Chail’s father, a software engineer who runs an IT company from the family’s £500,000 four-bed home, yesterday told MailOnline something had gone ‘horribly wrong’ with his son.

‘We are trying to figure out what,’ he said.

‘We’ve not had a chance to speak to him but are trying to get him the help he needs. We are going through a difficult time. We are trying to resolve this issue and it’s not easy.’

In the video footage, the masked and hooded 19-year-old aims a black crossbow at the camera as he pledges to kill the monarch in revenge for the 1919 Amritsar, or Jallianwala Bagh, massacre, when British troops killed hundreds of Indian protesters.

In an artificially deep voice that he has digitally distorted, Chail says: ‘If you have received this then my death is near.’

He adds: ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry for what I’ve done and what I will do. I will attempt to assassinate Elizabeth, Queen of the Royal Family. ‘

Just minutes after the police swooped on the intruder, Prince Andrew was seen driving down the Long Walk in his Range Rover with a protection officer. 

He was diverted away from the Cambridge Gate. Prince Charles and Camilla arrived on the estate at about 10am.

The Christmas Day intruder was sectioned under the Mental Health Act after doctors pronounced him medically unfit to be processed in the usual way.

Scotland Yard, which took over the investigation from Thames Valley Police on Boxing Day due to the serious nature of the breach, said the suspect remains in the care of medical professionals.

Doctors and detectives are now examining the bizarre footage in which Chail apparently makes various references to villains from the Star Wars film series.

‘I’m an Indian Sikh, a Sith. My name was Jaswant Singh Chail, my name is Darth Jones,’ he says in the video. This is understood to be a reference to the enemies of the Jedi knights, who use the dark side of the force for evil.

Behind Chail in the footage is a framed picture of evil Sith Lord Darth Malgus.

Detectives investigating why Chail sought revenge over a century-old massacre of Indian Sikhs visited a number of gurdwaras, Sikh temples, across Hampshire to explore whether the teenager had links to organised religion. But he is not thought to have been a regular worshipper and was unknown at the temples in Southampton.

Friends said Chail, a former pupil at Toynbee School in Chandler’s Ford, is very close to his twin sister, who achieved top grades at school and is now studying international relations at university.

According to her social media profiles, she shares her brother’s interest in the Star Wars films. A friend said that they were ‘inseparable’ as young children.

A former school friend, who did not want to be named, said: ‘He seemed like a normal lad really. 

 ‘Nothing to distinguish him from anything else. There was one big incident with him getting in a fight with someone but that was back when he was 13.’

Chail’s parents married in Britain in 1993 and have lived in Lancashire and the Midlands before settling in the Hampshire village home they bought for £390,000 in 2015.

Neighbours described the family as ‘quiet but very pleasant’ and said they were shocked to see a huge police presence at the home on Christmas Day.

The breach was the fourth known security incident at Windsor this year, including an invasion from a woman, 44, who was allowed into Prince Andrew’s Royal Lodge after claiming she was his fiancee.

Former head of royal protection at Scotland Yard, Dai Davies, said he was concerned to hear that a crossbow had been involved in the invasion but the security teams did a good job in apprehending the intruder so quickly.

‘My view is that the police acted as soon as the alarm on the fence was triggered and apprehended him very quickly,’ he said.

‘This was the outer layer of the security onion, there are many more layers of security he would have faced and many more responses ready for him.

‘There are always lessons to be learnt and they will be conducting internal inquiries now to see how any response could have been improved.’

Scotland Yard said the man remains in the care of medical professionals as the full circumstances of the incident are investigated. ‘Security processes were triggered within moments of the man entering the grounds and he did not enter any buildings,’ it added.

Scares show we must beef up security, warn experts  

By David Barrett Home Affairs Correspondent

Security at Windsor must undergo a radical review after a series of troubling lapses, experts said last night.

They called on police to carry out a root and branch shake-up of security protocols at the historic castle and other royal residences in Windsor Great Park.

Sam Armstrong, of counter-terrorism think-tank the Henry Jackson Society, said: ‘It is clearly not geared up to be a primary royal residence. 

The Queen is spending more and more time there, which is entirely understandable at this time of transition for the Royal Family. But the police now need to step up and do their part.

‘Windsor presents a new set of challenges in terms of security because of the size of the estate and its semi-rural location on the edge of town.’

The arrest of suspected crossbow-wielding intruder Jaswant Singh Chail on Christmas Day was the fourth known security incident at Windsor this year.

In April a 44-year-old woman was allowed into Prince Andrew’s Royal Lodge residence, four miles away from the castle in Windsor Great Park, by claiming she was his fiancee.

The Spanish woman gave her name as ‘Irene Windsor’ and even got security guards to pay her taxi fare before spending 20 minutes wandering the grounds. She was later sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

And later that month, police arrested a 29-year-old woman and a 31-year-old man for trespassing in the grounds of the Royal Lodge.

Earlier this month a woman was given a talking to by police officers after banging on the window of Prince Andrew’s Range Rover as he drove from his home to go horse riding.

In the wake of the alleged crossbow incident, Ken Wharfe, the former bodyguard to Princess Diana, also called for a full security review at Windsor.

‘The Queen’s safety is clearly under threat. It’s often been thought that Windsor is particularly at risk to intruders due to the make-up of the estate and the severity of this event should really cause alarm bells to start ringing,’ he told the Daily Mirror.

‘This individual was caught in time but any system could always be beefed up as any other scenario could be tragic,’ he added.

Retired chief superintendent Dai Davies, the former head of the royal protection unit, said: ‘Windsor is having an issue with intruders and need to get to the bottom of it before something more sinister comes to pass.’

‘I would predict a major review will be needed after this latest incident, which is incredibly worrying, especially as this individual was armed.

‘The next time could always be far worse and that is a huge worry.’