Published: Friday, 9th May, 2008 16:30
Sweet sixteen actor jailed
By Craig Davidson
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CLIMBING STUNT: A picture of Darnell Hooks from his own website.
A SWEET Sixteen actor banned from Inverclyde has been blasted by a sheriff after a 50-foot drainpipe stunt.
Darnell Hooks clambered up two storeys of a tenement building in Greenock to tap on the window of his ex-girlfriend’s flat.
The 24-year-old made his way up the drainpipe while he was banned from the area as a result of a previous vandalism conviction.
Appearing in court yesterday, he pleaded guilty to breaching the court order during the Lynedoch Street stunt.
And Sheriff John Herald gave him a dressing down, saying: “Never mind up the drainpipe, you are up the creek.”
The sheriff court heard how the frightened woman called police when she heard the tapping outside her window in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
When officers arrived on the scene at 1.50am, Hooks was still 50 ft up the drainpipe, refusing to come down.
They eventually talked him down and Hooks — formerly of Greenock, but who was listed in court papers as of no fixed abode, climbed halfway and jumped. Police then arrested him for breaking a court order.
Yesterday, Hooks admitted the bail breach when he appeared from custody at the sheriff court.
A charge of breach of the peace was dropped by the court.
His solicitor, Gerry Keenan, said: “Believe it or not, he wasn’t auditioning for the Romeo part, this was a mode of access he had used before.”
He had appeared at court last month as part of a vandalism charge and had been banned from Inverclyde as part of his bail condition while he awaited sentence.
Sheriff John Herald deferred sentence on him for one week and remanded him because he had no fixed abode outside the town.
Hooks had a small part in Sweet Sixteen, the 2002 movie directed by Ken Loach and set in Greenock.
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‘Jail me’ man gets his wish and protests
