Reveller died at Brownstock Festival in alleged ‘mock bushtucker’ trial
Paul Wickerson. Picture: Essex Police - Credit: Archant
A festival-goer who had taken cocaine, ketamine and LSD was dumped in a field by two security staff “for sport”, a jury has heard.
Paul Wickerson, 32, strayed onto a 60 mph road near to where he was dropped off four miles from Brownstock Festival in Stow Maries and later killed in the road after being hit by a vehicle in 2013.
Two security guards, Brian Atkins, 49, of Gordon Road, Ilford, and Gregory Maxwell, 32, of Masefield Crescent, Romford, have pleaded not guilty to false imprisonment and kidnapping at Chelmsford Crown Court.
It is alleged that the defendants dumped him to see if he could make his own way back as part of a “mock Bushtucker trial”.
The prosecutor told the court the decision to drop Mr Wickerson off “was done for sport”.
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A statement from Mr Wickerson’s friend Terry Scarrett told how the victim had arrived at the festival site at about 9.30am on August 31.
He had come directly from a London nightclub before having a sleep.
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Mr Wickerson and two friends, according to the statement, were said to have taken “one line of cocaine, one LSD tablet and a small line of ketamine.
Later Mr Wickerson, who was British but had been living in Australia, was heard talking about “everything being beautiful and sacred”.
He then had a sleep, but later “became really paranoid” claiming the group had been robbed.
The statement continued: “We decided to go back to the tent, which was a mess – we had dumped everything in there – and he kept saying “we have been robbed” we said we hadn’t.”
The group put Mr Wickerson in the tent but he is said to have to have jumped out, without his shoes, shouting: “We have been robbed”.
Mr Scarrett added: “He was out of control and we’d never seen anything like it.
“He was jumping out of the tent and needed reassurance, holding onto me.
“I continued to try and calm him, [friend] Tiffany [Marinaro] suggested getting security and Paul ran away.”
