On Thursday, Dale Mclaughlan bought a Jet Ski for 6,000 pounds.
On Monday,
the 28-year-old Scotsman was sentenced to four weeks in jail.
What happened
on the three days in between, according to court documents, may be one of the
more unusual instances of rule-flouting during the coronavirus pandemic.
The day after
purchasing the watercraft, Mclaughlan set off at 8 a.m. for what he thought
would be a 40-minute trip from the southwestern coast of Scotland to his
girlfriend’s home on the Isle of Man, between England and Ireland. He later
told authorities that he had never ridden a Jet Ski before and that bad weather
on the Irish Sea caused the trip to stretch to 4 1/2 hours.
Mclaughlan
finally reached Jessica Radcliffe, his girlfriend, on Friday night, after walking 15 miles from the
Isle of Man’s coast to her home in its capital, Douglas. The couple spent the
weekend enjoying the city’s nightlife, but their reunion was cut short, when he
was arrested and later charged with one count of violating the Isle of Man’s
coronavirus restrictions.
On Monday, he
received a four-week jail sentence.
“This
individual was aware of the law and showed a flagrant disregard when they chose
to break it, mixing in the community and potentially putting lives at risk,”
Howard Quayle, chief minister of the Isle of Man, said in a statement Tuesday.
The Isle of
Man, which relies on Britain for defense but is self-governing, is closed to
nonresidents, except for those who have special permission. Mclaughlan arrived
without an entry permission and failed to declare his arrival or self-isolate.
The island,
which has a population of about 85,000, has only four active coronavirus cases
and has not had a locally transmitted case for more than six months.
With
isolation fatigue setting in, thousands of people around the world have been
caught, fined and even jailed for defying coronavirus restrictions. In a case
in Italy this year, a man was fined after leaving his house to cool off after
an argument with his wife, breaching the country’s curfew. In Taiwan, a man was
penalized for leaving his quarantine room for eight seconds, and in Australia,
a man was caught violating lockdown to get butter chicken curry.
Mclaughlan,
like many who have been separated from loved ones during the pandemic, was
having trouble coping with the distance. He met his girlfriend in September,
when he visited the island for his job as a roofer. After returning to
Scotland, he twice applied to travel to the Isle of Man to see his girlfriend,
but both requests were denied, according to court documents.
As for why it
took Mclaughlan more than four hours to cross a short distance, Allan Stirling,
owner of a boat dealer in Linwood, Scotland, said the trip should have taken
less than an hour.
“You can see
the Isle of Man from the peninsula where he set off from,” Stirling said. “To cover that
distance is not a big deal.”
Dale Mclaughlan told reporters: “As soon as I hit open water I thought ‘Oh my God’. It was like getting a kick in the teeth. It was terrible. It wasn’t fun. I followed the GPS, but after half an hour a massive wave wiped it away. I didn’t have a clue where I was going”.
“After two hours I thought, ‘Where the bloody hell
am I’? I couldn’t see a thing … I thought I was lost at sea. I was scared,” he
said.
His gas tank warned him he was about to run out
just as he saw the coast of the Isle of Man, which he recalled “like a beacon
of hope.”
But he was off-target, and at least 15-miles from
Jessica’s home — which he says he just walked.
“I just stuck my headphones on and off I went. I
was listening to power ballads”.
Jessica Radcliffe had no idea he was making the romantic trip, and when he got to her home she “peeked her head out of the window, opened the door, jumped around my waist and gave me a big kiss. I said, ‘Hi, babe!’ I was still a bit smelly from the water,” he said.
“When I was arrested, I didn’t deny it – I was caught red-handed”.
McLaughlan was sentenced to four weeks in jail, and
says he was amazed at making headlines around the world. “I was like, ‘What?
I’m just a guy from Scotland!’ People are saying I’m a legend.I think I’ve
lifted a lot of spirits. A lot of people say I’ve made a good end to a terrible
year. That made me feel better,” he said.
“I broke the law. But I did it for love.I should never have done it. It could be called a crime of passion.”
Jessica Radcliffe told the paper that she loves her madcap
Romeo.
“How could I not after what he did?” she said. “I would like to marry him, but not this year. He’s got to get over here first – legally this time!”
From ABS-CBS (edited)
