Urban explorers banned from climbing buildings in England and Wales

Four urban explorers who filmed themselves climbing, hanging from and parachuting off buildings have been banned by a court from scaling structures across England and Wales.

The men were prosecuted following reports of them climbing structures in Lowestoft, Suffolk.

A court was shown footage taken from their own head cameras, including images of two of them hanging 15 storeys from the ground on the town's St Peters Court building, Suffolk Police said.

They also filmed themselves climbing a large crane in the town centre and parachuting from a wind turbine.

Matthew Adams, 23, Daniel Batchelor, 26, and a 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, all from Lowestoft, along with Javier Centeno-Gomez, 24, from Ellough, were found guilty at Lowestoft Magistrates' Court last week of causing alarm and distress to residents, the force said.

They were given Criminal Behaviour Orders banning them from climbing man-made structures.

The order also prevents them going beyond safety barriers on any building and bans them from parachuting off any structure without permission from the owner.

After the prosecution, Adams wrote on Facebook: "I wont be climbing any buildings or structures in England or Wales anymore.

"The police finally did their jobs, we have all been charged and they even hit us with a CBO (criminal behaviour order). It looks like I'm going to have to travel a lot more now."

A Suffolk Police spokesman said officers had "no alternative" but to take action due to the extreme danger caused by their actions.

He added: "As was pointed out during sentencing, they may have fallen and not only killed themselves but innocent passers-by on the ground.

"Evidence gathered by police showed they had repeatedly carried out the activity and had been posting footage on the internet."

Adams told the Press Association he disputed that he had endangered other people's lives.

He said: "People don't understand that we put a lot of training into this.

"I accept it is dangerous, but we prepare for it and we don't encourage other people to do it."