Royal Family targeted by hundreds of potential stalkers with 35 assessed as highest risk of trying to ‘do harm’

The Royal Family has been targeted by 35 deranged stalkers assessed as likely to do ‘serious harm’ in the last three years.

Protection officers have identified almost 500 potential stalkers during this timeframe.

And the number posing the highest level of risk has risen by almost 50 per cent, from 24 during the previous three years to 35, according to figures from Scotland Yard.

The force’s Fixated Threat Assessment Centre found the number of potential stalkers had risen from 433 to 480 during this time.

The potential threats had been pinpointed by the Metropolitan Police’s Royalty and Specialist Protection team, responsible for protecting government ministers as well as members of the Royal Family.

In 2023, a crossbow-wielding fanatic was jailed for nine years for treason after arriving at Windsor Castle on Christmas 2021 and telling police he was ‘here to kill the Queen.’

Supermarket worker Jaswant Singh Chail, who was 21 at the time, said he had been encouraged by his artificial intelligence ‘girlfriend’ chatbot and was detained under the Mental Health Act.

Chail had been wielding a crossbow and said he had been encouraged to kill the monarch by his AI chatbot girlfriend

The Duchess of Sussex has been subject to multiple ‘disgusting’ threats against her life, former Met assistant commissioner Neil Basu has previously revealed.

Many of the threats were deemed credible, he added, and would have left Meghan feeling ‘under threat all the time.’

Former head of the Met’s Royal Protection Command, Dai Davies, told the Mirror: ‘Unfortunately there will always be deranged people who want to do harm to the Royal Family. The difficult job for the police is determining which of them have the means and determination to go through with any plan.

‘There are probably 50 to 100 people they are currently monitoring who they feel could pose a significant risk. Quite often these people will be mentally unwell and some will be quite unsophisticated.

‘It’s not unknown that these people will be so obsessed they have written to the object of their fixation and revealed their own name and address.’

Experts warned that the Royals are targeted by a wide range of individuals, including Islamic terrorists, far-right activists and lone fanatics

He added: ‘These [pinpointed risks] are only the ones that have been brought to the attention of the authorities. There may be many more lurking in the shadows. It is impossible for the police to be 100 per cent confident of weeding out all the people who might want to harm the Royal Family.’

Experts warned that the Royals are targeted by a wide range of individuals, including Islamic terrorists, far-right activists and lone fanatics.

In 2021, a woman triggered a major security alert when she was found wandering around Prince Andrew’s Windsor home claiming she had arranged to meet him for lunch.

She had been waved into the grounds by bungling guards who even paid her taxi fare, but was later detained under the Mental Health Act.