A Sydney man is dead after two security guards working the Brownstock music festival in the UK allegedly handcuffed and dumped him as part of a prank inspired by the reality televisions dries, I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!.
As the Sydney Morning Herald reports, 32-year-old Paul Wickerson, originally from the UK, was attending the Essex music festival on 31st August 2013 when he was ejected by 49-year-old Brian Atkins and 32-year-old Gregory Maxwell.
Prosecutor Andrew Jackson told the Chelmsford Crown Court in the UK that security staff had taken Mr Wickerson on “a four-mile (six-kilometre) bush tucker trial”, a term made famous by I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!, wherein celebrities compete to win food for their camp.
Fifteen minutes after he was allegedly dumped by the two guards, Mr Wickerson was killed when he was hit by several cars. However, both Atkins and Maxwell have both denied the charges of false imprisonment and kidnap.
According to court documents, Mr Wickerson, a development geologist who moved to Sydney in 2012 with his girlfriend, was shirtless, intoxicated, and affected by drugs believed to be cocaine, LSD, and ketamine.
“He was clearly the worse for wear because of the drugs. It was done for sport, to see if he could make his own way back,” said Mr Jackson. Brownstock Deputy Director Adam Brown told the jury he’d seen staff handcuffing a topless reveller, believed to have been Mr Wickerson.
“There was a lot of trying to restrain him,” said Brown. “He was attacking back quite severely. It took them some time to restrain him. I believe they put handcuffs on him with his hands behind his back.”
“There was a lot of struggling but I definitely saw handcuffs on him. They then carried him back to the service road.” The restrained man was then driven away in a Land Rover Discovery.
Brown recounted how he later confronted Atkins after he saw emergency services attending a serious accident that occurred near the festival site. “I can’t be sure of the exact wording but ‘we drove off site and kicked him out’ was the gist,” said Brown.
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According to Brown, Atkins then suggested that Mr Wickerson was “a couple of miles away” and gestured in a direction. “I said, ‘We’d better hope that’s not to do with the incident that happened on the road’,” Brown told the court. “I don’t remember him saying anything.”
A statement from one of Mr Wickerson’s friends said that he arrived at the festival, which featured a lineup including Mark Ronson and The Fratellis, at 9.30am on 31st August, coming directly from a London nightclub without sleeping.
The statement said Mr Wickerson and two friends had taken “one line of cocaine, one LSD tablet and a small line of ketamine”. The Sydney resident later slept but “became really paranoid”, claiming the friends had been robbed.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, a trial deciding whether Mr Atkins and Mr Maxwell are guilty of false imprisonment and kidnapping is expected to continue for two weeks.
