A thrill-seeker has vowed to stop making a “nuisance” of himself after scaling the outside of a 13-storey car park – while blindfolded.
Robbie Borthwick admitted a breach of the peace charge over the matter when he appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court yesterday.
The 22-year-old, who has posted a number of YouTube videos of himself free-climbing various tall buildings and structures around Aberdeen, scaled the multi-storey car park at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
A video of the terrifying act posted online describes it as a “Birdbox Challenge” – a craze linked to a hit film which saw people trying to carry out various tasks and activities while blindfolded.
And the stunt, carried out on January 28, has landed Borthwick in court.
Speaking to the Evening Express outside court following the hearing, in which sentence was deferred for reports, Borthwick said his days of free-climbing were over.
He said: “There’s too much risk behind it. It’s not worth doing it any more.
“I’d rather move on from this point and stop making such a nuisance of myself and causing fear and alarm to everybody else. It’s quite selfish to be honest.
“I’ve got bigger and better things to be doing in my life rather than scaling up buildings.”
Asked if his antics had landed him in the dock before, he said: “This is the first time and it’s going to be the last time.
“It’s not worth it. I’m 22 years old now and it’s getting out of hand.”
He added: “I’m sick of doing it. I’d rather focus on working on myself, focus on becoming more of an adult.”
During the hearing, depute fiscal Anna Chisholm told the court: “The accused was observed to be climbing the multi-storey car park by an individual who was working there at the time.
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“It’s a 13-level car park approximately 100ft in height.
“By the time the worker had alerted somebody else, the accused had run off.
“CCTV was reviewed and this showed the accused to be free-climbing the car park exterior using no safety equipment, being blindfolded.
“The incident was reported to police.
“Police officers had been aware of the accused’s tendency to upload similar videos to YouTube.
“He was subsequently traced, cautioned and arrested.”
Defence agent Tony Burgess said: “By way of background it would appear when he was about 14 his mother died and his way of dealing with the grief was to become a free-runner.
“While doing that he injured himself in such a way he was no longer in a position to continue doing that and later went on to this thrill-seeking activity known as free-climbing.
“On that particular day, he added what, for him, was the thrill of the blindfold.
“He wasn’t doing it to put anyone, not least himself, in actual danger, but of course that is a consequence of what he was doing.”
Sheriff Ian Wallace told Borthwick, whose address was given in court papers as Hartington Road, Aberdeen: “I’m going to defer sentence for the preparation of a social work report.
“That’s to look further into your background and get more insight as to the circumstances of how you came to commit this offence.”
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