Wrexham,North Wales - Man admits charges after three-hour siege drama

Published date: 15 April 2016 | 

Published by: Staff reporter
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A MAN involved in a siege-like situation on a large Wrexham housing estate has admitted affray and damage.

Despite objections from the prosecution, Roy Harper, 44, was bailed to his sister’s address pending sentence next month.

Prosecutor Rhian Jackson, who applied for a remand in custody, said during the stand-off at his partner’s home on Wednesday, Harper was brandishing a piece of wood with a metal screw protruding from it.

He threatened that the first officer to enter would “get it around the head”.

At one stage he swung it and smashed a window and the officers had to jump back to avoid the glass.

Trained negotiators were called in and after nearly three hours Harper climbed through a window he had earlier broken and gave himself up to the police.

Harper was yesterday bailed to Aralius Houses in Gwersyllt where he must observe a 7pm to 7am curfew.

He is banned from entering the Caia Park housing estate and he is to have no contact with his partner Sharon Blaisdale.

Flintshire Magistrates Court heard how she was not at her home at Y Wern, Caia Park, at about 2pm when he smashed a window at her property and went inside.

Mrs Jackson said shortly after 2pm police received an anonymous phone call, officers went to the flat and saw him inside.

The majority of the windows were boarded up, they tried to speak to him and asked him to come to the door, but he refused.

Damage had been caused to a window and large wooden furniture had been placed against the window.

He was heard to shout “I don’t trust no-one” and “you are not coming in”.

Harper was “extremely agitated” and shouted abuse as police officers tried to calm him.

He was also abusive to members of the public walking past and shouted “what the f... are you looking at?” and “they will f...... get you.”

Harper held the piece of wood at the window sill and when asked to come out or to allow officers in, he said: “I swear, it will be straight in the head. Someone will get hurt, I don’t care.”

The area was cordoned off as trained police negotiators were called in. Harper remained volatile, shouting at officers and the public.

“He was seen to swing the wood at the window and smash it,” said Mrs Jackson. “The glass went towards officers.

"They had to run away from the window. If they had not moved then the glass would have landed on them.”

Negotiations continued and eventually he climbed out of the broken window and gave 

himself up.

He was arrested at 5.10pm. He gave a no comment interview.

At the time he had been on bail conditions not to contact his partner or to go to her flat at Caia Park where the incident occurred.

Harper also admitted theft of vodka after he was seen drinking from a bottle in Tesco’son April 12 and an assault on a police officer on April 4 when he slammed a gate in the custody area which struck a female officer.

Ceri Evans, defending, said Harper had not been in trouble for seven years but had committed all the offences over a 10 day period brought about by pressures in his personal life.

He and his long-term partner had been together 21 years and they had a son. 

They had been evicted, his partner had been given her own accommodation and he had been living with relatives.

His father had died which had a profound effect upon him, said Ms Evans. He had not been able to see his father in his final days, but had attended the funeral.

The incident on Wednesday had escalated beyond anyone’s imagination when he “lost all sense of control over his actions and words”.

Police were called, he knew he would be arrested and he began making threats.

While officers and residents would have been caused great concern, they had been idle threats and he would not have carried them out, she said.

Ms Evans said Harper was a softly spoken, pleasant man who was genuinely upset by what had happened.

“He would not have hurt the police officers, but of course they were not to know that,” she said.

“They were idle threats in the hope that the police would go away and leave him alone.”

A pre-sentence report would help the court and investigate the changes and stresses in his life at the time, she said.

Magistrates, who ordered a pre-sentence report, granted a bail application and said Harper would be sentenced next month at Wrexham court.

All sentencing options would remain open including committal to the crown court, they said.

see-http://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/160986/wrexham-man-admits-charges-after-three-hour-siege-drama.aspx