Bear Grylls Fan Jailed For Having Weapons and Drugs in Perth Park

A Bear Grylls fan found in a public park with a crossbow, mask, latex gloves and a wig, was locked up last night after being found guilty by a jury of having weapons and drugs.

Jamie Wisbey was remanded for psychiatric reports after a sheriff heard details of the sinister contents of his bag after he was discovered by chance.

Sheriff Lindsay Foulis told Wisbey he would be jailed for the offence but added that he wanted reports so he could consider whether he should be made the subject of supervision after his release.

Oddball Wisbey was found lurking in the bushes of the South Inch park in Perth on 1 June when a couple went to feed ducks at 3 am because they had been unable to sleep.

The fisherman claimed he had missed his train on the way to join a scallop boat in Buckie and had been using Bear Grylls-style survival skills in the park during the night.

Wisbey told the trial: "I knew I was coming to Scotland so I was watching Bear Grylls and was interested in camping and things like that. I had cat gut for fishing and cotton wool for tinder and things like that.

"I didn't really know the wig was in the stuff in my bag. It was given to me by one of the family as a joke." Bald Wisbey told police during an interview that the wig was to keep his head warm.

Wisbey told the jury that he had acted in a "sly and sneaky" manner by trying to hide the bag containing the crossbow and arrows and other items.

He admitted he planned to use the balaclava as a mask and said: "I thought it would be handy. It's Scotland. It's warm where I come from, but it's freezing here."

Fiscal depute Gavin Letford said: "Did Bear Grylls give you the advice to take on a fishing boat a wig, a crossbow and a mask? Were all of these items taken together not for the purpose of going on a fishing boat, but for some other purpose you were not wanting the police or court to find out about?"

Wisbey also had 11 bottles of methadone in the name of Monique Phoenix within his bag.

Panel beater Josh McNeil, 39, and carer Kirsty Edmonston, 25, told the jury at Perth Sheriff Court they spotted Wisbey going in and out of the bushes in the park in Perth.

Miss Edmonston said: "We went out to get air. We regularly have trouble sleeping. We saw a man. He was quite some distance away behind some bushes.

"He was going in and out of the bushes. It was quite a strange thing to see at that time in the morning. He jumped out in front of us. He had something he was concealing in his pocket.

"He said he was a fisherman and needed to go up north for a job. I just said it's not right that you're in the park at this time. He wasn't making sense. He was very strange."

Mr McNeil told the trial that where Wisbey was hiding would have made it difficult for any "victim" to get away from him. He said they followed him to the train station where they watched him hide a bag.

Police were called and PC David Cross, 31, said they searched Wisbey's bag and found it contained a bizarre array of items. The officer told the court it contained a laptop, two USB sticks, a black wig, latex gloves and a dictaphone.

PC Cross added: "I also found a balaclava which had eye pieces and mouth pieces cut out. The areas which had been cut out had been re-stitched so they wouldn't pull."

Wisbey, from Plymouth, was found guilty of having a crossbow and arrows in the South Inch park and the railway station in Perth on 1 June this year. He was also found guilty of having a locking saw blade and methadone in the public park and at Perth railway station.

Sheriff Foulis said he wanted to get a psychiatric report because of Wisbey's behaviour on the morning of the incident and also because of the contents of his bags. Sentence was deferred and Wisbey was remanded.

When Wisbey first appeared on petition, the court had to be hastily convened in the back of a G4S prisoner escort van over fears he had a contagious skin condition akin to scabies.

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