Jail for Rainworth man who sparked police stand-off by climbing onto a pub roof
A drunken Rainworth man who sparked a four-hour police stand-off when he climbed onto a pub roof and called Raoul Moat his “hero” had just started drinking again after an alcohol-abstinence tag was removed.
Joseph Dowling began drinking at 11am on April 19 and continued “steadily” for the next 12 hours before “kicking off” when he went to the landlady’s flat above the Lurcher, on Westbrook Drive.
They had been in a relationship since January after meeting on a dating app and she followed him up after hearing banging and a commotion, said Philip Plant, prosecuting.
“He was throwing things around and she thought he had been watching her on the pub CCTV,” he said. “He pulled the screen off the wall, became abusive and refused to leave the flat.”
Dowling, aged 38, climbed out of the kitchen window and onto the roof, damaging plant pots, and someone else rang the police.
A police negotiator was called out to talk him down and the fire brigade were also present. He threw tiles from the roof and smashed all the flat windows.
Dowling shouted that his heroes were Raoul Moat and “all those who kill police officers,” adding he understood why female officers like the negotiator were raped.
He stayed up there until 3.30am and caused just under £8,000 damage.
Nottingham Crown Court heard he received a 31-week sentence, suspended for 18 months, for driving while disqualified last December.
Denney Lau, mitigating, said there was a gap in his offending but he fell back into alcohol abuse after the death of his child.
“He feels better after not drinking alcohol,” he said. “He is not asking for anything else than the shortest possible sentence. He knows what his demons are and he wants to address them. He is remorseful.”
Dowling, of Catlow Walk, Rainworth, admitted criminal damage, affray and breaching a suspended sentence.
On Wednesday, Judge Michael Auty KC told him: “I have some measure of sympathy for you given the wretched circumstances that befell you.
"But you must understand you can’t go about behaving like this when you're in drink. If you do anything like this again you’re going to find yourself going downstairs for years.”
He imposed a 15-month prison sentence and a five-year restraining order.