Family of Briton jailed for grabbing gun at Trump rally are 'thrilled' he escaped a longer term

The mother of a British man sentenced to a year in a US prison after attempting to grab a gun at a Donald Trump rally has said she is "absolutely delighted" that he escaped a far longer jail term.

Michael Sandford had faced up to 20 years over the incident at a Las Vegas casino in June, which was initially treated as a potential assassination attempt.

The 20-year-old was ultimately given a sentence of just 12 months after the judge accepted he was suffering poor mental health and had not intended to kill anyone.

His mother Lynne Sandford told Good Morning Britain that the family, from Dorking in Surrey, are "thrilled" with the result.

Mrs Sandford said that serving the jail sentence would be a "struggle" for her son but knowing that there was an end in sight shortly "makes all the difference in the world".

"Just knowing that he has only less than a year to do is going to make a tremendous amount of difference to him," she told the programme.

"He knows he has got a future ahead of him and it is not too far to go."

Sandford had admitted charges of being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm and disrupting an official function.

He suffers from autism and was suffering a psychotic episode at the time of the incident.

While sentencing, Judge James Mahan said he accepted Sandford was "not evil" and concluded "I don't think you wanted to kill anybody."