Real spiderman shows no remorse

‘French Spiderman’, 48-year-old Alain Robert, says he climbed Sydney’s 57-storey Lumiere building consensually and safely last week, despite Police charges.

Outside the courtroom on Friday Robert’s Lawyer John Gaitanis said he pleaded not guilty to charges of risking another’s safety and of trespassing.

“He actually went onto the premises with the consent of someone. We’re not going to say who that is at the moment – we’re going to see what the police evidence is,” he said.

“[The wall] didn’t overhang the public street – the street was far removed from the building itself, because there was a huge veranda.”

Robert said he chose the site because it was the safest for the public.

“I want to not plead guilty for once. I took as much precaution as I could for doing a safe ascent, a safe way, for not endangering people,” he said.

Last year Robert was ordered to pay $750 for climbing Sydney’s 41-storey Royal Bank of Scotland Building.

He has also illegally climbed Centrepoint Tower and the Harbour Bridge in previous years, and many other landmarks, including Chicago’s Sears Tower, Kuala Lumpor’s Petronas Twin Towers and Paris’ Eiffel Tower.

He said his recent climb was so easy he “wouldn’t have been able to fall”, and plans to use the testimony of a physicist at his trial to explain how nobody on the street could have been hurt because of an underlying 20-metre terrace.

Robert left the Downing Centre Court building furious after reporters harangued him for committing crimes in a guest country and wasting taxpayer money.

Police closed sections of George and Bathurst Streets for about 20 minutes – the duration of the climb, while onlookers gathered.

“Are we thinking like that whenever there is a big rugby game or a big football game? How many cops are they using for that?

“Or if there is a strike… Okay, my own way, what I did was a strike: it’s a protest,” he said.

He says his action was in response to Tony Abbot saying global warming was “crap”.

“I think it’s not really responsible as maybe a future prime-minister saying such a thing,” he said.

“I did fix a banner with a statement on global warming, it has been really seen around the world. A lot of people are really happy about what I did, so I think it’s a good act.”

The banner promoted climate change awareness site onehundredmonths.org.

Robert became angry at accusatory media questioning about his funding and financial motives.

During the climb, he was paid to wear a Zoo Weekly magazine t-shirt.

His lawyer, Mr Gaitanis, said that Robert had been paying his expenses out of his own pocket for more than 20 years, only receiving sponsorship in the last couple.

“People just misinterpret that he’s going off and making money out of this – it’s unfortunate.

“His net position is in the negative, in terms of all the money he’s spent over the years in paying for flights, accommodation, fines, being arrested,” he said.

By Lawrence Bull