The mother of a Briton accused of attempting to grab a police officer’s gun to try to kill Donald Trump has said she fears her son may try to kill himself if he is sentenced to jail.
 |
| British man arrested at Trump rally in Las Vegas ‘after trying to seize police gun’ |
Michael Sandford, 20, from Dorking, Surrey, was arrested at a rally in a Las Vegas casino after going for the weapon as he asked for the presidential hopeful’s autograph on 18 June.
Sandford, who was in the US without permission, later told police he wanted to kill the presumptive Republican nominee, according to the secret service.
His mother, Lynne, said the son she knew was “sweet, sensitive and calm” and the charges were not “the actions of the same person”.
“I was horrified, obviously. It’s very scary. This is not the Michael I know. I just can’t get my head around it to be honest,” she told the Victoria Derbyshire programme on BBC2.
“I have been told through reading the press he faces 30 years in prison and ridiculous amounts of fines and there is no way he would be able to cope with that.”
Sandford was diagnosed with Asperger’s at 13 and had to be sectioned as a teenager after developing anorexia and coming close to dying. His mother said he had tried to kill himself before.
She said her son had never spoken to her about politics.
“As I have said, he is a very gentle, very calm person by nature and he would see there was no point. Why would he live the next 30 years in these situations? So yes, I think he would attempt to commit suicide again.”
She added: “I would like him to be deported so he can be back in the country and can get psychiatric help and that way he could see the family that still adore him.
“Jail is no place for him, he needs help. But not prison.”
She said Sandford’s father had visited him in the US after his arrest and spoken with him via videolink.
Sandford’s father had told her their son had seemed “bewildered and disorientated” and that he “didn’t seem to know what was going on around him or what the consequences were going to be”.
She said the 20-year-old was being held in isolation for 22 hours a day in a medium-secure facility that held 1,100 people.
Last month, the US attorney Daniel Bogden said a grand jury had charged Sandford with disrupting an official function and two firearms charges.
Sandford told investigators he expected to die in his attempt to kill Trump, which he had been planning for a year, the Las Vegas court heard.
He arrived in the city on 17 June and went to a shooting range where he reportedly learned how to use a gun for the first time.
Sandford is expected to appear in court in Las Vegas later on Tuesday.
guardian
0 Comments