A man dressed as the Grim Reaper climbed onto the roof of a Welsh hospital and stood there for fifty minutes, looking down at the people arriving below. On 6 June, Leon Gillespie, 26, from Deganwy, got onto the walkway above the main entrance at Glan Clwyd hospital in Denbighshire in a hooded black outfit. Witnesses thought he was holding a long blade. Four police cars and a fire engine were sent, and negotiators were called before he came down a ladder.
He was charged with causing a nuisance or disturbance on NHS premises without reasonable excuse, an offence that carries a fine rather than a prison sentence. At Llandudno Magistrates’ Court on 29 July he pleaded guilty and was fined 200 pounds, with 100 pounds in costs. He also admitted stealing cat food and cat litter from a Pets at Home in Llandudno, and food and drink from a Sainsbury’s in the same town, and was ordered to pay compensation for those.
The detail that changes how the story reads came from the bench. District judge Gwyn Jones told him it was clear he had been going through mental health issues at the time. Gillespie had, in fact, been detained under the Mental Health Act for nearly a fortnight, ten days after the incident on the roof.
The hospital board said afterwards that it has a zero-tolerance approach to abuse, aggression or nuisance on its sites, which is understandable when the people below that roof were patients, visitors and staff arriving for work. Court reports also described the outfit as looking less like the Grim Reaper and more like a crow. No explanation for the stunt was offered in court.
Sources: The Independent, court reporting from Llandudno, North Wales Police.
Photo credits: Wales News Service.
When a public stunt turns out to be a breakdown, what should the response be?