Wigan free climber Adam Lockwood sentenced for defying ban

Adam Lockwood dangled from the edge of a balcony from a building in Canary Wharf

A "greedy" and "arrogant" free climber has been given a suspended sentence for defying a court order not to scale tall buildings.

Adam Lockwood, 19, of Wigan, was sentenced to three months in jail, suspended for two years, by a judge at Manchester County Court.

Manchester City Council said he breached an injunction banning him from trespassing and posting content online.

His defence said YouTube was partly to blame for the teenager's behaviour.

The court was told the council secured a three-year anti-social behaviour injunction order in 2019 against Lockwood, banning him from climbing buildings and cranes, riding on the exterior of buses, trams and trains and entering construction sites in England and Wales.

This followed videos he posted online of himself hanging off the sides of buildings and cranes in Manchester.

'Height of stupidity'

He was also banned from uploading videos to social media that had been filmed while he was trespassing on private property.

The city council said Lockwood, whose YouTube handle is The Little Nuisance, had breached this order three times since early June.

Lockwood climbed a building in Manchester Arndale Centre

He stood on the roof of the Arndale Food Court entrance in Manchester during the Black Lives Matter protest, on 7 June.

Nine days later he dangled from the edge of a 600ft (180m) balcony at the Madison Building in London's Canary Wharf - both stunts were uploaded to the internet.

On 5 July he left an abusive message on a council answering machine, saying that a council officer should be "shanked up" in the street.

In mitigation, Lockwood's solicitor said that seeking celebrity and financial reward from YouTube was behind his client's stunts, saying: "It's all about YouTube hits. YouTube pay."

Deputy District Judge Lindsay Clarke condemned Lockwood's "deliberate, knowing and wilful" breach of his order, adding that carrying out such stunts during a pandemic was the "height of stupidity" and motivated by "arrogance" and a "greed for celebrity".

Nigel Murphy, deputy leader of Manchester City Council, said Lockwood's actions were "incredibly dangerous" in normal times but "to do this during a pandemic, when emergency services and council staff are already stretched to their limit, defies all logic".