Man, 27, jailed over ‘five-hour siege’ in which he flung roof slates and bricks at riot cops

A yob has been jailed after a “five-hour siege” in which he hurled slates and bricks from a rooftop at police and vehicles on the street below.

Police negotiators cowered under riot shields as they tried to reason with Jack Smith to come down from the rooftop on Middlefield Crescent in Aberdeen.

And at one point he shouted that he wanted a gun.

The 27-year-old did eventually come down, with the help of the fire service, but not before he had caused more than £30,000 of damage to the roof and vehicles below.

Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard Smith climbed onto the roof after going on a “bender” and drinking too much, and could not explain why he did it.

Fiscal depute Christy Ward told the court: “At about 4.50am on Sunday August 16, police received a phone call from a member of the public to advise that the accused was in the back garden of an address on Middlefield Crescent.

“On police attendance, they saw the accused attempting to scale the rear of the building onto the roof, using a drainpipe for support.

“After the accused reached the roof, which is about 15 feet from the ground, he began to forcibly remove roof slates and throw them on to the ground below.

“As he did so, the accused was shouting and swearing.

“The accused thereafter climbed to a higher point and continued to remove the roof slates and throw them onto the street at the front of the property, with the slates hitting numerous parked cars.”

Ms Ward said Smith managed to break a chimney and threw the bricks onto the driveway.

She continued: “Police attended at the rear of the property as the accused was throwing bricks from the broken chimney into the garden together with more slates.

“The accused remained volatile throughout his time on the roof, shouting and swearing.

“He repeatedly refused to come down. He slid himself across the roof to remove as many tiles as he could.

“Police negotiators attended at the locus. As they were negotiating with the accused, covered by the shields of public order officers, the accused threw slates at them, which hit the shields protecting them.

“At one point the accused shouted that he wanted a gun.

“The accused behaviour continued until approximately 10.30am when he began to co-operate with the negotiators and, with the assistance of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, he was taken down from the roof by 11am.”

Ms Ward told the court an inspection found “extensive damage” to the roof, with “large amounts of slats and masonry missing”.

TV aerials had also been broken off.

Repairs cost around £16,000 which was paid for by Aberdeen City Council. It’s not known if insurance covered the costs.

A number of vehicles were also damaged, with a Volkswagen Tiguan written off the value of £1,850, a Volkswagen Passat costing £6,500 to repair, and a Vauxhall Insignia costing £3,500 to repair.

Damage to a Volkswagen Caddy cost £350 to repair, while damage to a Nissan Qashqui was written off by insurers to the value of £2,800.

Ms Ward added: “The cost of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service attendance was £2,398.60.”

Smith, a prisoner of HMP Grampian, pled guilty to charges of culpable and reckless conduct, malicious mischief, assault and behaving in a threatening or abusive manner over the matter.

He also admitted a separate charge of assaulting an employee at Farmfoods on Great Northern Road on May 9 by slapping her.

Defence agent Alex Burn said: “He tells the author of the social work report he’s a self-confessed alcoholic. He’s struggled with alcohol use since the age of 18.”

Mr Burn said his client had used cannabis and experimented with other drugs from the age of 13, and that by 18 he had given up drugs but turned to alcohol instead.

He added: “He can’t remember too much of the incident. He’s reported as simply being wasted.

“He went on a bender for a few days, consumed a considerable amount of alcohol.

“He gets on to the roof. There’s no real reason for it.

“From my own dealings with him I understand he does have some mental health issues.

“He has expressed remorse.

“This clearly was a bizarre situation.

“He fully accepts a lot of inconvenience has been caused to the police and fire department and he’s apologetic for that.”

Sheriff William Summers told Smith: “You’ll understand that the offences libelled on the indictment are particularly troubling.

“In effect, what happened was a five-hour siege in a residential area on what would otherwise have been a quiet Sunday morning.

“You threw slates and bricks at police officers and cars and you caused more than £30,000 worth of damage.

“It’s clear that there is no appropriate way for the court to deal with this other than by imposing a custodial sentence.”

He jailed Smith for a total of 24 months.