Fort man in school roof stand-off

A SHERIFF heard this week how police officers spent seven hours trying to persuade a Fort William man who climbed onto the roof of a former school in the town to come down and give himself up.

Jack Salter, of the town’s Lochaber Road, had previously admitted that, on December 3 of last year, he had behaved in a threatening or abusive manner likely to cause fear or alarm by climbing onto the roof of the former school property in Upper Achintore, walked to the edge of the roof, refused to come down, shouted, swore and uttered threats of violence and repeatedly struck the roof with a metal implement.

His plea of not guilty to a further charge that he had been found in the grounds of the school with the intent to commit theft had been previously accepted by the Crown.

Appearing back at court before Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald this week for sentencing following the compilation of a criminal justice social work report, Salter, aged 20, listened as procurator fiscal Robert Weir read out details about the incident.

Mr Weir said police had been alerted by a member of the public around 5.30pm on the Sunday in question.

‘The member of the public reported seeing someone climbing onto a wheelie bin and in through a window of the school,’ Mr Weir told the court.

‘When police officers arrived at the scene they noted the wheelie bin and the broken window and a cordon was placed round the building and a police dog handler sent for.’

However, Mr Weir said the initial search of the premises found nothing. But some time later Salter had been spotted on the roof of the building hiding behind a chimney stack.

Mr Weir continued: ‘The accused was seen to walk close to the edges of the roof and would not come down when asked to do so by police officers.

‘A police negotiator then attended about 11pm but the accused still repeatedly refused to come down.

‘His behaviour became aggressive and volatile while on the roof and he threatened to rip open the police dog if it came near him. He also had a metal bar which he was banging off the roof. This all continued for several hours.’

Defence agent Hamish Melrose said Salter’s explanation had been that he didn’t think he had been doing anything wrong.

‘He said he didn’t want to come down because he thought he would be arrested and that is what led to this stand-off,’ explained Mr Melrose.

Mr Melrose said he had dealt with Salter on a number of occasions over the years and said he could be ‘quite difficult to get through to’ when it came to communication. ‘But he has always had the support of his mother and his long-time girlfriend,’ added Mr Melrose.

Ordering Salter to do 126 hours of unpaid work in the community as a direct alternative to custody, Sheriff MacDonald said it had been an ‘alarming’ way to behave: ‘You engaged the police service for a good number of hours unnecessarily in what was quite strange and alarming behaviour.’