Man who shone laser at police helicopter ‘thinking it was UFO’ avoids jail
A grieving father who shone a laser at a police helicopter has been cleared of criminal charges after a court heard he had a medical condition which deluded him into thinking it was an ‘alien craft’.
Timothy Wilsdon, 62, was arrested minutes after the helicopter’s cockpit was flooded by a ‘dazzling light’ while flying over the Gloucester village of Blockley at around 3.40am on 24 November 2020.
The pilot told officers on the ground where it was coming from, who knocked on the door of the property and were answered by a stark naked Mr Wilsdon.
He appeared ‘hesitant to answer’ questions but quickly apologised and handed over his laser pen, claiming he didn’t know what the vehicle was, the officers told Cirencester Courthouse.
Mr Wilsdon later told detectives: ‘I was woken up and heard this noise and felt it was on top of my house. After 10 minutes I thought it was going to crash because it sounded like the engine was cutting in and out. I panicked about this.
‘All I could see was these lights moving about in the sky and a whirring sound that kept cutting out. But whatever it was I thought it was going to crash. The lights kept changing colour.
‘I had a laser pen and used it like a torch to try and identify what it was up there. I thought it was a UFO because of the coloured lights coming from it.’
He would later tell the court he was used to seeing military aircraft flying overhead to nearby RAF Fairford, but the vehicle’s behaviour made him think it was ‘something out of the ordinary’.
In his police interview, he continued: ‘It was quiet and very still for periods of time until the whirring began again. I couldn’t stop following it with the laser until it went away. I thought it could be a bright star if it wasn’t a UFO.
‘It felt as if it were diving and making a terrible noise, just like wounded planes sounded like in war-time films as they dived out of control to the ground. In my mind I thought it was something alien.
‘I didn’t know it was a helicopter as I thought it was a UFO which was about to crash. Had I known it was an aircraft I would not have shined a laser beam at it.’
The court was told Mr Wilsdon had started suffering depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after the recent death of his son at the age of 19.
While seeking help from doctors and a psychiatrist for the problems, he was also diagnosed with hemochromatosis, a genetic disorder which can contribute to episodes of confusion.
Psychiatrist Dr John Pilgram said Mr Wilsdon was not receiving treatment at the time due to the pandemic and was likely ‘suffering fromcognitive impairment due to the deficiency of B12 in his blood’.
Dr Pilgram said the 62-year-old’s reluctance to put clothes on and his behaviour in police custody was ‘striking evidence’ that he was confused at the time.
Vanessa Pople, defending, said: ‘Quite clearly he is not a well man and has been diagnosed with a number of medical issues.
‘I feel he has a reasonable excuse for shining or directing the laser beam towards the police helicopter. He did not know what it was.
‘He had the courage to explain what he thought it was – a UFO, an alien aircraft or something like that. He has a history of similar delusions and paranoia, which is confirmed by the medical evidence.’
District Judge Nicholas Wattam said prosecutors had failed to put forward ‘any medical experts’ to counter the ‘clear medical opinion’ of Dr Pilgram and Mr Wilsdon’s GP, who provided three letters to the court.
He added: ‘I don’t want to make too much of what Mr Wilsdon did, but I accept that his behaviour was not logical. In fact it was clearly illogical, nonsensical and dangerous.
‘But the fact is that there is a clear medical opinion that Mr Wilsdon was suffering from a cognitive impairment at the time,’ the judge added, finding him not guilty.
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