The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Six months in custody for climber who scaled The Shard
Court: Daredevil visited building up to 200 times to prepare, says lawyer
A free climber who scaled The Shard – one of the tallest buildings in Europe – has been sentenced to six months in custody after admitting breaching a High Court injunction.
George King-Thompson, 20, from Oxford, climbed almost to the top of the 310-metre (1,017ft) building in just 45 minutes on July 8.
London Bridge Station was briefly closed and King-Thompson received a police caution after he was spotted on the side of the skyscraper at 5am.
The Shard’s owners, Teighmore Limited, brought legal proceedings against him for breaching an injunction designed to deter trespassers, made by the High Court last year.
Yesterday KingThompson appeared at the Royal Courts of Justice in
London to admit being in contempt of court.
Mr Justice Murray said King-Thompson’s breach of the order was “deliberate and knowing” and that “he would have walked past at least 10 copies” of the order during his climb.
The judge added that “iconic buildings are sometimes the targets of terrorists”, and that “information regarding ways into and around the building” could increase the risk to people living and working inside.
Sentencing King- Thompson to six months in a young offenders institution, he said that “despite his young age and previous good character, it is not a sentence I am able to suspend”.
David Forsdick QC, representing Teighmore, told the court that KingThompson had spent eight months planning his climb, had moved to east London “specifically to prepare” and visited The Shard up to 200 times, sometimes wearing disguises.
Mr Forsdick said KingThompson had used the hashtag “rooftopillegal” when posting a video of the climb on Instagram.
He said the climb was a “highly dangerous trespass, both to him and potentially to members of the emergency services and the public if he had fallen”.
Philip McGhee, for King-Thompson,toldthe court: “He wishes to make an unreserved apology for
“A highly dangerous trespass, to him and potentially to the public”
his actions, and that is an apology to the court first and foremost.”
He said he also wished to repeat his earlier apology to commuters and to the emergency services. He said King-Thompson had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and that, when he was “meticulously preparing and planning” the climb, he developed “almost an obsessive focus on the detail”. He concluded: “Mr King-Thompson will not climb another building in the UK. He very much regrets and is very sorry for doing what he did in July.”