By Jim Hislop

THE FIRST thing a man who climbed a 300-foot crane in Westport, Dundee, on Friday said to police when he eventually came down was “Spiderman always gets away—I’ll have to plan my escape route better.”

Derek Anderson (47), of Graham Court, was jailed for two months at Dundee Sheriff Court yesterday after he admitted committing a breach of the peace on August 29 by climbing a 300-foot crane on a building site next to the Doghouse public house and throwing objects from the crane to the fear and alarm of those below.

Depute fiscal Gavin Callaghan told the court that at about 8.30pm Anderson cycled into the Doghouse beer garden area, where the crane is temporarily situated and went into the bar.

A short time later he was seen climbing the crane, and on the way up threw down the reflective vest he had been wearing.

The police were contacted and as soon as they saw what was happening they called in fire and ambulance personnel.

Anderson was almost at the top of the crane when he began throwing other objects to the ground hundreds of feet below.

Given the serious nature, a senior police inspector was appointed incident commander and a dedicated radio channel was opened. Surrounding streets were closed, causing major disruption to traffic, and the Doghouse was evacuated for fear of injury to patrons and staff. A large crowd had gathered at the scene by this time.

Firefighters could not use any equipment to reach that high, said Mr Callaghan, and a team of police negotiators was put on standby.

They heard Anderson shouting, but could not be certain what he was saying.

He was then seen to remove his top and swing backwards and forwards by his hands from the jib of the crane and it was feared that he would fall to his death.

After some one-and-a-half hours, he climbed down and was arrested.

He was not interviewed until 10.30 pm on Sunday, when he made his Spiderman remark.

Asked why he had climbed the crane, he said he was carrying out a peaceful protest and thought it would be nice to climb the crane. He had been looking at it for some days.

He said, “I never did it because I was drunk, I’ll do it again sober if you like.” Asked what the protest was about, Anderson said he wanted floodlights installed at the Dudhope Skate Park.

Asked if he realised that he had wasted the time of the emergency services, he replied that he didn’t care.

Mr Callaghan said that apart from the time wasted by the police and emergency services, the incident had cost the Doghouse an estimated £1500 in lost business.

Solicitor advocate Jim Laverty said Anderson was married with an eight-year-old child. He had previous convictions, the two latest being on August 19 and 22 as the result of a dispute with neighbours who had subjected him and his family to fairly intensive anti-social behaviour.

Anderson had made numerous complaints to the housing association and the police but felt he was getting the “fuzzy end of the lollipop” because of his past convictions. Although not suffering from a mental health disorder he had been depressed for about 18 months.

On Friday he had been to the skate park. He and other users had continually tried to have it floodlit, because it had to close about 9pm. The residents in the area of the skate park strongly opposed this idea.

“He got it into his head to perform some peaceful protest for what he thought was the vindictiveness of these residents, who did not want people using the skate park at all.

“That’s why he climbed the crane, and the items he threw to the ground were three gloves, a light plastic shinguard, a reflective vest and his baseball cap, none of which would cause any injury.”

Sheriff Charles Macnair interrupted to say “The people on the ground didn’t know that when he threw them.”

Sheriff Macnair said that it had been an extremely serious breach of the peace.

“You caused enormous disruption, you caused substantial financial loss to the public house.

“You caused police officers, firemen and ambulance crews to be deployed and your initial remark on being arrested was that you were not at all concerned about all of that.

“Peaceful protest is certainly acceptable as part of our democracy. But your actions did not fall within the meaning of peaceful protest.”