The Old Bailey today saw the passing of a criminal sentence for treason, the first such sentence in over 40-years. Jaswant Singh Chail, 21 pleaded guilty in February of this year to three offences including the treason charge but also possession of an offensive weapon and making threats to kill Her (late) Majesty the Queen, on Christmas Day 2021. At that time, HM the Queen was in residence at Windsor Castle rather than Sandringham due to the ongoing pandemic and Royalty protection officers encountered him in the middle of the night, in possession of the crossbow stating, “I’m here to kill the Queen”. Having challenged him with a taser, he complied with their directions, but insisted again, “I’m here to kill the Queen”.
The defendant’s actions were motivated by a desire on the defendant’s part to take revenge for the Jallianwala Bath massacre by British Troops in the Indian city of Amritsar in 1919. After he was detained, police found a bag full of equipment including grappling ropes for use during entry to Windsor Castle and as you’ll see from the media coverage, the crossbow was quite a serious piece of equipment. He stated in the legal proceedings earlier in the year that he wanted an “heroic end” one of the assessing psychiatrists informing the court that Chail’s intention was “much more suicidal than some of the evidence suggested”.
Mr Chail has been sentenced to 9-years in prison but has also been made subject to a hybrid order under s45A of the Mental Health Act 1983. You can read the full sentencing remarks of judge for yourself, if you wish. We’ve covered hybrid orders before on this blog, but in light of such a high-profile sentencing and people potentially wondering how this works, I thought it would be worth a another summary, with links to the previous explanations I’ve given.
HYBRID ORDERS
Where someone is convicted of a criminal offence but thought to be mentally ill to such a degree they require hospitalisation, the judge can choose to impose either a restricted hospital order (under sections 37/41 MHA) or to impose this so-called hybrid order (under s45A). If a restricted hospital order were given, it means the person goes to hospital and remains there until such time as his or her treatment is complete and discharge from hospital is authorised by the Secretary of State for Justice. If a hybrid order is given, it means the judge still specifies a criminal sentence to be served but the patient will first of all go to a psychiatric hospital for treatment. In this case, the defendant was in already detained in Broadmoor high-secure hospital so he simply remains there, but is now detained under the hybrid order rather than whatever framework was previously in place.
In this particular trial, the defendant was charged with three offences —
- Treason, contrary to the Treason Act 1842 – he has been sentenced to 44-months in custody.
- Possession of an offensive weapon (the crossbow) – sentenced to 16-months in custody
- Threats to kill – he has been sentenced to 48-months in custody.
Emphasis in this case has been on the treason conviction because of its historical novelty, but perhaps more significant is the conviction for threats to kill. Not only is it longer than the treason sentence, but it has another implication which I will outline at the end.
In any trial where someone is convicted of multiple offences, the judge must decide how to balance off the various sentences to achieve a proportionate, overall total. This involves striking a balance of deciding whether the sentences should be served all at once (ie, concurrent sentences) or one after the other (ie, consecutive sentences). In this case, as you can hear for yourself from the judge’s sentencing remarks, he has imposed consecutive sentences but he was slightly reduced the tariff for charges 2 and 3, to achieve a proportionate overall total. 44+16-48 = 108-months = 9-years.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN?
So Mr Chail remains in Broadmoor, where he has previously been detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 leading up to his trial and sentence. He now commences his 9-year sentence in hospital and if he should remain unfit for discharge for 10-years, for example: he will remain in hospital for 10-years and be discharged from there, having not be taken to prison. If, however, he requires hospitalisation for 3-years, he will be transferred to prison and then be governed by the rules which would have applied if he had only served his sentence in prison.
As the judge stated, should he be in prison at the point where he reaches two-thirds of of his third sentence (for the threats to kill), he will be eligible at that point for consideration by the Parole Board for release.
But this is not a guaranteed release: he would have to satisfy the Board of the ongoing risk he may pose to the public and if they are not satisfied, he remains in prison up to the maximum point of his 9-year sentence. In addition, he will be subject to an extended licence period of five-years on his release from prison. When any prisoner has been released before the service of their full sentence, he or she remains liable to be returned to prison if they fail to meet any conditions on their licence or if they offend again.
Finally, I had a quick moment wondering whether he would be subject to public protection procedures, known as MAPPA – these multi-agency arrangements apply to violent or sexual offenders but we typically hear of them where there has been a serious violent or sexual assault. Thankfully, he was intercepted by the police before any harm could be done to Her Majesty or anyone else and the focus here has been on the Treason conviction, because of its historical novelty. However, the offence of threats to kill is qualifying MAPPA offence, so he will be subject to these arrangements on release.
Winner of the President’s Medal,
the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Winner of the Mind Digital Media Award
All opinions expressed are my own – they do not represent the views of any organisation.
(c) Michael Brown, 2023
I try to keep this blog up to date, but inevitably over time, amendments to the law as well as court rulings and other findings from inquests and complaints processes mean it is difficult to ensure all the articles and pages remain current. Please ensure you check all legal issues in particular and take appropriate professional advice where necessary.
Government legislation website – www.legislation.gov.uk
Mental Health Cop 