Blaine: Man fined over water

2003-10-01 08:59

London - A businessman was fined £1 000 ($1 660) on Tuesday for damaging the unit supplying water to New Yorker David Blaine in his plastic box dangling near the River Thames.

Stephen Charles Field, 38, pleaded guilty to causing criminal damage and a further charge of threatening behavior at Tower Bridge Magistrates' Court in London.

Field, of Godalming in southern England, admitted scaling a 9m tower which houses the unit supplying water to Blaine. The illusionist is now more than halfway through a 44-day stunt during which he is refusing food and surviving on water alone.

Field told the court that he had initially wanted to get a better view of Blaine, but once up there he threw a large plastic water container from the tower, ripping the feeder pipe and breaking two taps.

"He was seen to be rocking the top platform and then tugging at pipes and ropes which connect the supporting tower to the box," Prosecutor Claudette Hamilton said.

When security staff tried to persuade Field to come down, she said, Field shouted: "I'll take you all on if I come down. I'll take you all on."

- AP