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Briton jailed over Trump death plot | |
(35 minutes later) | |
A British man has been sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison over his attempt to grab a gun in an alleged bid to kill Donald Trump. | |
Michael Sandford, 20, pleaded guilty in September to being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm and disrupting an official function. | |
He was accused of grabbing a policeman's gun at a rally in Las Vegas in order to shoot at the candidate. | |
His mother says "he is remorseful over what he did". | |
Sandford, from Dorking in Surrey, had faced up to 10 years in prison over the alleged assassination plot. | |
He has been held in Las Vegas jail cell on suicide watch since his arrest. | |
In the courtroom - James Cook, BBC News, Las Vegas | |
Sandford's lawyers say he is autistic and suffers seizures and obsession-compulsion anxiety. | |
They say he could be eligible for release in four months time, at which point he will be deported to the UK. | |
Sandford's ankles were shackled and he wore orange prison garb and looked pale and slight as he appeared before US District Judge James C Mahan. | |
He broke down in tears as he apologised to the court for taking up time and costing the taxpayer so much money. | |
"I just feel terrible about it," he told the court. | |
His mother, Lynne Sandford, also addressed the judge, saying her son was "cherished and adored". | |
"It breaks my heart to see him in this environment," she said, as she appealed for a lenient sentence on the basis that her son needed treatment and the support of his family. | |
After Sandford was arrested, he allegedly told officers that he had planned to shoot the billionaire Republican candidate. | |
His mother said that she had lost contact with her son after he left home to travel around the US in 2015. | |
She added that he suffers from a range of mental health issues - including severe OCD, anxiety, depression and previously anorexia - and had previously tried to take his own life twice. |