Riot police end stand-off with Leave supporter feared to have stockpiled petrol bombs at home
A BREXIT-supporting father who thinks the Government is conspiring against him was feared to have stockpiled petrol at his home, before his stand-off with the police came to a close yesterday after three days.
The man, named locally as 46-yearold Jason Matthews, barricaded himself and his four dogs into his council house by reportedly surrounding himself with petrol bombs.
Around 80 neighbours were evacuated from their homes and an area about 200 metres around his house was cordoned off amid fears he may try to blow himself up.
The Metropolitan Police said yesterday that it was “treating seriously” reports that the man has “quantities of petrol and combustible material” at his home in Northolt. Armed officers were stationed outside his home since the early hours of Friday. However, at around 8pm officers forced access to the property and detained the man, with the support of the fire brigade.
Chief Supt Paul Martin, in charge of policing in Ealing, said: “Our key priority was to get the man out of the address safely as we had growing concerns about his well-being and believed him to be in crisis. After attempts to negotiate over a number of days did not work we used specialist officers to work out how we could gain entry to the address as safely as we could.”
He added that officers would search the address to make sure it was safe for residents to return to their homes. Neighbours said Mr Matthews was of- ten spotted walking his rottweilers in Northolt, north-west London, and is known in the area as “the man with the dogs”. They said he was a strident Brexit supporter who has problems with “the Government”.
One neighbour, who did not wish to be named, saw Mr Matthews throw his mobile phone out of the window during talks with police negotiators, forcing them to use a Tannoy to speak to him.
The neighbour said: “We had police telling us ‘there’s a bomb nearby’. But after a few hours we were given the all clear, but still told to stay indoors.”
Mr Matthews’s Facebook page reportedly contains a number of posts claiming that the Government is conspiring against him. He also used the page to show support for Right-wing and pro-Brexit groups.