A “very strange” man was found lurking in bushes with a wig, balaclava, latex gloves and a crossbow and saw in the middle of the night, an insomniac couple told a jury.
The couple – who went out at 3am to feed ducks when they could not sleep – said they discovered Jamie Wisbey hiding in the undergrowth near a pond in a public park.
They told a jury at Perth Sheriff Court that he was “agitated, panicking” and “very strange” when they confronted him about his sinister late night behaviour.
Panel beater Josh McNeil, 39, and carer Kirsty Edmonston, 25, said they spotted Wisbey going in and out of the bushes in the South Inch park in Perth on 1 June this year.
Miss Edmonston said: “We went out to get air. We regularly have trouble sleeping. We saw a man. He was quite some distance away behind some bushes.
“He was going in and out of the bushes. It was quite a strange thing to see at that time in the morning. He jumped out in front of us. He had something he was concealing in his pocket.
“He said he was a fisherman and needed to go up north for a job. I just said it’s not right that you’re in the park at this time. He wasn’t making sense. He was very strange.”
Mr McNeil told the trial that where Wisbey was hiding would have made it difficult for any “victim” to get away from him. He said they followed him to the train station where they watched him hide a bag.
Police were called and PC David Cross, 31, said they searched Wisbey’s bag and found it contained a bizarre array of items. The officer told the court it contained a laptop, two USB sticks, a black wig, latex gloves and a dictaphone.
The hidden rucksack – which Wisbey initially denied was his – was also discovered and was found to contain a crossbow in two pieces, along with a number of arrows and 11 bottles of methadone in the name of Monique Phoenix.
PC Cross added: “I also found a balaclava which had eye pieces and mouth pieces cut out. The areas which had been cut out had been re-stitched so they wouldn’t pull. It was a greeny, camouflage colour.”
Thomas Robertson, 52, head of the surveillance and enforcement unit at Marine Scotland Compliance, said that in 35 years on boats he had never seen any use for a locking saw like the one Wisbey was alleged to be carrying.
Wisbey, from Plymouth, denies being in possession of a crossbow and arrows in the South Inch park and the railway station in Perth on 1 June this year. He also denies having a locking saw blade in the public park and at Perth railway station.
He also denies possessing methadone and the trial before a jury and Sheriff Lindsay Foulis continues.