Michael has pleaded not guilty to charges of disrupting government business and being an illegal alien in possession of a gun, and his trial is due to begin on August 22. “Michael is an autistic man who would not have foreseen the consequences of his actions”.
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According to the official criminal complaint, Sandford told authorities he’d been planning to kill the controversial presidential hopeful for over a year, but chose this date because “he finally felt confident about trying it”.
Lynne Sandford told reporters in London Tuesday that her son, 20-year-old Michael Sandford, has been diagnosed with a number of mental health issues and has been on suicide watch for the past three weeks.
“I accept that Michael has tried to do a bad thing but he is mentally ill and is not a bad or unsafe person”, said his mother, adding that she had last spoken to him on the phone on Sunday.
But because of his severe mental health problems, his family, who love him very much, want him returned to the UK.
She explained: “We’ve got a target of £25,000 initially to get a good lawyer here [UK] because obviously we’re dealing with the law here and over there [US]”.
Ms Chahal said: “We are regularly in touch with the public defender’s office in Nevada”.
Chahal told reporters that the top priority was “to try and secure Michael’s repatriation to the United Kingdom so that he could be assisted in a medical facility”.
“When we heard the news of Michael’s arrest we were shocked and horrified”.
Sandford’s mother Lynne Sandford, who has launched a crowdfunding appeal to pay for her son’s legal fees, said he did not fully appreciate the gravity of what he had done.
Michael Sandford had overstayed his visa by several months and was in the US illegally at the time of the alleged incident.
Her son, she says, is now on suicide watch over in America, and has been handcuffed and shackled. He has autism and Asperger’s syndrome, as well as problems with obsessive compulsiveness and anxiety, she said.
“He was very remorseful, profusely apologetic for any problems that he’s caused”, she added.
“He’s just very emotionally fragile, very vulnerable, very frightened and very bewildered”.
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Ms Sandford has raised more than £20,000 through a crowdfunding campaign to pay for his legal fees, mental health reports and to help her fly out to the U.S. to support her son. We want him to serve his sentence in a safe institution for vulnerable people, where he can receive appropriate help and be closer to his family.
