Pierce Brosnan could face prison if found to have trespassed near Yellowstone hot springs
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Pierce Brosnan is set to appear in court next month after trespassing on a “delicate” Yellowstone hot spring.
The former James Bond star was charged with twice entering no-go areas of the Wyoming National Park on Nov 1.
He is accused of leaving permitted footpaths to get a closer look at the technicolour thermal Mammoth Terraces, an act illegal under federal law.
The offence is punishable by up to six months in prison and a maximum fine of $5,000 (£3,900).
The 70-year-old Irish actor is alleged to have strayed into areas of the famous national park that are barred to the public because they are considered too dangerous.
He is due to appear in front of district judge Stephanie Hambrick at the Yellowstone Justice Centre in Mammoth, Wyoming, on Jan 23.
It is the first time he has had a brush with the law. The Telegraph has reached out to Brosnan’s representatives for a comment.
Brosnan filming a Western
The Drogheda-born actor was in the area for the filming of Unholy Trinity, a Western in the early stages of shooting that will also feature Samuel L Jackson.
Brosnan will play a sheriff in the movie, which is set in Montana during the 1870s.
It is set to be the 102nd film he has appeared in since he made his on-screen debut aged 27 in The Long Good Friday in 1980.
The Mammoth Terraces are a series of white and orange limestone formations formed by thermal water bubbling out of the Earth’s surface.
The boiling, highly acidic thermal waters are extremely dangerous.
Some of the springs at Yellowstone can reach temperatures of 92C (197F) and steam vents can be as hot as 135C (275F).
“Water in hot springs can cause severe or fatal burns, and scalding water underlies most of the thin, breakable crust around hot springs,” the US National Park Service advises.
“Always walk on boardwalks and designated trails.”
More than 20 people are known to have died after entering or falling into Yellowstone’s hot springs.
Colin Nathaniel Scott, 23, is thought to have drowned and dissolved after falling into one of the springs in June 2015.
He was hiking through prohibited areas of the national park with his sister, Sable, as they searched for a “hot pot” to swim in.
She was filming on her smartphone when her brother tripped and fell into the boiling 100C (212F) waters of the Norris Geyser Basin.
Ms Scott rushed to get help, but by the time park rangers arrived, detached parts of her brother’s head, torso and hands were visible in the spring.
The only things eventually recovered from the acidic water were Mr Scott’s flip flops and his wallet.
In August 2022, one national parks employee found the foot and shoe of Il Hun Ro, a 70-year-old from Los Angeles who had died weeks earlier in mysterious circumstances.
It took rangers another three months to identify the body part as his, using DNA samples, and it is still not known how exactly he ended up in the West Thumb Geyser Basin’s Abyss Pool.
In June, a woman was filmed crying and screaming in pain after plunging her hand into the national park’s Silex Spring.
Holding on to the hand of an older man, she ignored warnings from onlookers as she stretched down to test how warm the water was before exclaiming: “It’s hot. It’s very hot.”
