Man who caused gas leak on Yorke Drive is jailed

A man who had a two-hour stand-off with police and caused a gas leak at a Newark house has been jailed today.

Keiron Anderson, of no fixed address, has been sentenced to three years and four months at Nottingham Crown Court after pleading guilty to making threats to kill, criminal damage and making threats to cause criminal damage.

Police say the 30-year-old barricaded himself inside a house on Yorke Drive, while threatening to blow it up.

Police say he forced his way into a house on April 16 before smashing up the TV, glass windows and ripping the cooker off the wall, causing a gas leak.

The woman who lived in the house managed to escape with her 12-year-old son, before Anderson locked himself inside and told them to call the police.

When officers arrived, Anderson lit a kitchen towel and threw it towards the gas pipe, creating a large emergency response.

Local residents were evacuated and an extensive amount of police and other emergency service resources were used, including; armed support, helicopter, ambulance service, fire service, emergency response gas team and a police hostage negotiator.

Police say Anderson threatened to kill any officer who attempted to enter the house and eventually gave himself up several hours later and was taken to Queen’s Medical Centre for a cut to his hand, caused by him smashing the window.

DC Scott Dickenson said: “This incident was hugely intensive on our resources, as well as other emergency services. A whole community was disrupted due to the selfish actions of one man.

“Thankfully no one sustained any injuries, but I suspect that the only reason the house didn’t explode was because Anderson had previously smashed a window.

“No one deserves to go to work and have their life threatened, which is what happened to many officers during the incident. People who join the emergency services do so because they want to help people, so it would have also been a frustrating time for all of those workers, aware of how many 999 calls were being made during those hours, by people who really needed their help.”