NSW:'Spiderman' arrested after Sydney climb

AAP General News (Australia)
08-30-2010
NSW:'Spiderman' arrested after Sydney climb

By Isabel Hayes

SYDNEY, Aug 30 AAP - A French stuntman famous for climbing skyscrapers has given yet
another arresting performance, scaling a Sydney tower block using only his bare hands.

Alain Robert was nabbed by the police as soon as he reached the top of the 57-storey
Lumiere Building on Bathurst Street, in the city's CBD, at about 10.50am (AEST) on Monday.

Scores of onlookers in the street below applauded as the 48-year-old, known as the
French Spiderman, took 20 minutes to scale the residential block without safety equipment.

"It's a wonderful achievement," said his agent Max Markson "... he's the best at what he does".

"I'm sad he's been arrested, but hopefully he'll get out soon and we can have some champagne."

Robert, in red trousers, a T-shirt and a baseball cap, entered the building about 10am.

He made his way to the 14th floor and went out onto the decking to launch his climb
up the outside of the building half-an-hour later, police allege.

Scores of passers-by gathered near one of the CBD's busiest intersections to cheer
him on, while officers set up a crime scene on Bathurst Street.

Rachel Pepper, 11, told AAP she couldn't believe her eyes when she saw Robert climb
up the building.

"I think it's amazing to climb that high without falling," she said.

"He's got superhuman strength."

Her mother, Wendy Pepper, agreed.

"It was a nice surprise when we turned the corner and got to see him," she said.

The crowd cheered as Robert hauled himself to the top of the building where police
were waiting for him. He was brought down, put into a police van and driven away.

Last year, Robert was fined $750 for illegally climbing the 41-storey Royal Bank of
Scotland building in central Sydney.

At the time, Downing Centre District Court Judge Graeme Henson lectured Robert for
disrespecting the laws as a guest in the country.

In June this year, Robert was forced to call off a planned climb of the Deutsche Bank
in Sydney after building security guards blocked his access.

In 2003, he was arrested for scaling the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

In a statement on Monday afternoon, police said Robert had been charged with risking
the safety of another by climbing a building and entering enclosed land.

He was granted conditional bail to appear at the Downing Centre Local Court on September 3.

Robert has climbed about 80 buildings around the world to raise awareness of global
warming and to draw attention to the One Hundred Months campaign.

The campaign stems from a belief that 100 months from August 2008 it may no longer
be possible to avoid potentially irreversible climate change.

Robert, who has said in the past he suffered from vertigo, started climbing when he
was just 12 years old and was locked out of his home.

Instead of waiting for his parents to return, he scaled eight storeys to get in.

Since then, he has climbed all sorts of buildings including the Petronas Twin Towers
in Kuala Lumpur, the Eiffel Tower and the New York Times building.

He has been arrested and fined several times in various countries.

AAP ih/klm/jl/was/it/cdh

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