She’s raised over £20,000
The mum of Michael Sandford, who allegedly tried to kill Donald Trump, has set up a crowdfunding page to have him released from his American prison and sent back to the United Kingdom.
20-year-old Sandford hit the headlines earlier this summer when he was arrested in Las Vegas for trying to grab a policeman’s gun at a Republican rally, supposedly in an attempt to assassinate Trump.
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”.
The Brit has been charged with disrupting an official function and two firearm offences, and is facing a 30 year prison stint if found guilty — something his mum, Lynne, is struggling to come to terms with.
Lynne has turned to CrowdJustice, a website set up by former Linklaters lawyer Julia Salasky, in a bid to bring her son home.
In her emotive plea for donations, Lynne says her son is autistic and has also been diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and severe depression. When he was 14-years-old, he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act after a failed suicide attempt.
Her son, she says, is currently on suicide watch over in America, and has been handcuffed and shackled.
She continues:
I am not asking for my son to escape punishment for what he attempted to do. But because of his severe mental health problems, his family, who love him very much, want him returned to the UK. 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.
Lynne’s big fear, she told ITV this morning, is that her son will die in prison, so she’s desperate to raise £25,000 in order for him to be transferred back to the UK to either the mental health or prison system.
The distraught mother is being advised by Saimo Chahal QC, partner at Bindmans, with whom she attended a press conference at the firm this morning. At the time of writing, Lynne is about £5,000 away from reaching her goal.
Salasky, the woman behind the CrowdJustice movement, has urged people to donate generously to the cause. She told us:
This is an enormous opportunity for people to come together to support Lynne Sandford and her family, and to leverage the power of community to help them get the best legal representation possible in a time when she — and her son — need it most.