A 999 caller who claimed he had been attacked by a cleaver-wielding killer clown in a Santa suit sparked a major armed police response.
Kieran Stephen said the sinister Santa had taken a swipe at him outside his Kemnay home – prompting no less than 18 police officers, including seven armed with guns, to race to his street.
However, it soon emerged Stephen, 21, had told a pack of lies and the killer clown was, in fact, just a neighbour dressed up for a Halloween party.
Fiscal depute Anne MacDonald told Aberdeen Sheriff Court Stephen made the call to police from his Kemnay home at 7pm on October 22 last year.
‘Claimed Santa had meat cleaver’
“He phoned 999 and police were immediately concerned by what they were hearing because he stated that a man in a Santa outfit with a clown mask and a meat cleaver in his hand was outside his home,” she said.
“He then said to the call handler that this man in the Santa outfit had approached him and was holding the meat cleaver towards him.
“He said the man has tried to swing at his leg with it and had just missed him as the accused managed to get back inside in time.”
Stephen also claimed his partner had managed to get photos of the man out of the kitchen window.
“He said that the man was about 20 and was not known to him,” the court was told.
“Police were very concerned about this incident, particularly the meat cleaver aspect.
“They declared it a firearms incident and a number of police units were deployed comprising seven armed officers, seven divisional officers and four operational support officers to investigate.”
There was a scary Santa – but he wasn’t armed
Alarmed neighbours watched as police swooped on Craigearn Park.
Officers quickly grew suspicious when Stephen started changing the story each time he told it.
Armed officers spoke to a neighbour, who revealed she herself had taken a photo of her relative dressed up in the killer clown costume as he left for a Halloween party.
“For that party, he was wearing a Santa outfit and a horror mask and carrying a plastic knife embedded in a plastic skull,” the court heard.
“She took a photo of him and saw him off. She and the man in the costume had nothing to do with the accuser. The man was just innocently going about preparations for a Halloween party.
“It’s not particularly clear what the accused’s reason for this elaborate 999 call was and why he exaggerated his dealings with the man in the outfit.”
‘It was a joke … a prank’
Stephen was cautioned and arrested almost two hours after he made the call.
“In that time police wasted a lot of manpower deploying people to the incident,” the fiscal added.
Stephen admitted a charge of wasting police time.
His defence agent sought to explain the circumstances of the bizarre hoax.
Solicitor John Hardie said the woman who had taken the photo of her relative had sent the image around a few different people in the neighbourhood with words to the effect of “there’s a killer clown on the loose in Kemnay”.
“It was a joke … a prank,” the solicitor added. “It was quite clearly a young person going to a fancy dress party. It was never intended to cause alarm.
“My client’s partner received the image and showed it to him. He, for whatever reason, thinks it’s real. He was a gullible person who made a particularly poor decision in this case.
“When he is asked questions by police about it his story grows arms and legs and before he knows it he has told the call handler the person tried to hit him with a meat cleaver.
‘It’s idiotic behaviour’
“Of course, that’s all nonsense. He knows he should’ve stopped at just mentioning the photo that concerned him. It’s idiotic behaviour and it had very serious consequences.”
Sheriff Eric Brown said: “It was perhaps understandable to report someone with a strange appearance walking about the street but it’s another matter to make claims he has been assaulted by him.
“These claims had rather serious repercussions.”
He handed Stephen, of Craigearn Park, Kemnay, 160 hours of unpaid work.
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