[imagesource: Getty Images]

In 1982, Michael Fagan, wearing only a sweatshirt and jeans, shimmied up a Buckingham Palace drainpipe and onto a flat roof that was only a few feet away from the palace’s main building.

He then climbed through an unlocked window and into the palace’s historic halls, undetected by cameras or security, slipped by staff going about their daily business, and into Queen Elizabeth II’s chambers.

The two actually came face to face, with Fagan saying he had intended to slash his wrists in front of her with a shard of an ashtray that he’d smashed in the palace, but changed his mind.

In the end, the Queen beat a hasty retreat and no harm was done. Had Jaswant Singh Chail managed to find his way to the royal last Christmas Day at Windsor Castle, it could have been a very different story.

The Telegraph reports that Singh, wielding a crossbow, approached a police officer and announced he was there “to kill the Queen”:

[He] is charged with intending to injure or alarm the Queen under the little-used Treason Act after he was arrested on Christmas Day last year.

Image: The Sun

The 20-year-old, from Southampton, is the first person in more than 40 years to be charged with offences under the 1842 legislation.

He is also charged with making threats to kill and possessing an offensive weapon in a public place, namely a crossbow.

Singh appeared in court yesterday and Kathryn Selby, acting for the prosecution, outlined how he was first spotted shortly after 8AM on the castle’s grounds.

Wearing a mask and a hood and carrying a crossbow which had been loaded with a bolt and had the safety catch off, he allegedly made his intentions clear to the first police officer he encountered.

It’s also alleged that he filmed a video bragging about his plans to  “assassinate” the Queen shortly before entering the castle grounds.

According to The New York Post he was wearing a mask and holding a crossbow at the time:

“This is revenge for those who died in the 1919 massacre,” Chail said, referring to an incident when British troops shot dead nearly 400 Sikhs in their holy city of Amritsar in northwestern India.

Image: The Sun

“It is also revenge for those who have been killed, humiliated and discriminated on because of their race,” he said in the video.

A search of Singh’s house revealed a gas mask and rope, the court was told.

He is currently being held at Broadmoor high-security psychiatric hospital and the court ordered he be detained until his next appearance on September 14.

[sources:tele&nypost]