A homeless man who got stuck in a window at Nottingham Trent University has been found not guilty of burglary after he told Nottingham magistrates he was trying to find somewhere to sleep.
Carl Attar, 27, attempted to enter the university’s Arkwright building on Shakespeare Street but got stuck in the process on the cold Thursday night of January 20.
Video: Carl Attar, 27, stuck in a window at Nottingham Trent University.
He was found hanging upside down from the window by two students from the university, Daniel Dei Niet, 20, and Tom Burdett, 19.
The students were on their way back from a night out at around 3am when they found Mr Attar, who had been trapped for around five hours.
They took photos and a video of Mr Attar, who they at first thought was a drunk student, before calling 999.
After being freed by fire fighters, Mr Attar was arrested on suspicion of burglary with intent to steal but was found not guilty at Nottingham Magistrates Court on Thursday.
Video: Sharon Walia talks to Nottingham Trent students, Daniel Dei Niet and Tom Burdett about their unusual discovery.
A spokesman for the Nottingham homeless charity Framework said: “There are options open to people who find themselves in that situation and we could have helped him if we had known.”
Mr Attar is known to the charity and has sought help from them in the past although they say that he hasn’t contacted them for a while.
“There are places for people to go to get a bed for the night in the cold weather such as the winter night shelter at Emmanuel house.”
“Its fair to say he could have accessed the support and would have known about the support.”
Sheds light on issues
The spokesmen said that the incident sheds a welcome light on the issues faced by homeless people in Nottingham.
Framework estimate around seven people in Nottingham sleep rough every night but said the figure would be much higher if charities like themselves were not in operation.
“Most people do not sleep rough because they don’t have money there are many complicated issues such as metal health and drug addiction. They fall a long way and are difficult to help,” he said.
“We urge anyone that is sleeping rough or members of the public who see or know of anyone sleeping rough to contact our team on our sleeping rough hotline 0800 066 53 56.”
