Mother of British man who 'attempted to assassinate Donald Trump' tried to stop him travelling to the US

Michael Sandford told his family he just wants to come home and seek psychiactric help

Michael Sandford is removed by police from the Trump rally in Las Vegas in June (AP)

The mother of a British man arrested for attempting to assassinate Donald Trump has said she contacted mental health services in the UK to try to stop him travelling to the US.

Michael Sandford, 20, was arrested on 18 June after attempting to grab a gun from a police officer.

He allegedly told the authorities that he had been planning to kill Mr Trump for a year.

Mr Sandford was diagnosed with severe Asperger’s syndrome and obsessive compulsive disorder as a teenager, and had previously been sectioned after he became anorexic and refused to eat.

His mother Lynne Sandford, 41, described the moment she saw her son on TV, having been arrested at a Trump rally in Las Vegas.

“It was midnight and I saw pictures of him being arrested. Headlines going across the screen. I couldn’t believe it,” Ms Sandford told The Guardian in an interview.

“My son, headline news for something so awful, and something just so not him. It broke my heart because it was the most I’d seen of him in a year. I just wanted to wrap my arms round him and never let him go.”

At 16, having become anxious and verbally abusive towards his family, Mr Sandford left home and moved into his own accommodation, claiming disability benefit as he was unable to attend school or work.

Ms Sandford said when her son, who also suffers from depression, announced he was going to New York on a sightseeing trip she had "just collapsed on to the sofa".

"I said, ‘This is insane – what the hell are you on about?’” she said.

She sought help from mental health services and a doctor, but “they said, ‘He’s 18; there’s no way short of having him declared mentally incompetent,’ which clearly he was not".

Mr Sandford’s family became concerned about his well-being just weeks into his trip to the US, when they were contacted by a hospital where he had been taken after suffering a breakdown, although he recovered and continued his holiday.

After returning to the UK, Mr Sandford decided he wanted to spend a full year in America.

He told his family he had a girlfriend who was in a US prison on a drugs charge and also said a former girlfriend had been pregnant with his child when she died in a car accident, but his mother said she was unsure if either claim was true.

But during his second stay in the US, Mr Sandford's family became worried once again as they only heard from him sporadically, with tales that he had run up medical expenses and now feared returning to the UK.

They eventually reported him missing in May, and discovered he was in Las Vegas only when they saw him being arrested on the news.

Mr Sanford’s trial is set for 22 August and he is currently on suicide watch, Ms Sandford said, reportedly telling her in a phone call that all he wants to do is come home and seek psychiatric help.