A man has been charged after he climbed onto the roof of a Newcastle primary school and had a seven-hour stand-off with police.
About 1.15pm yesterday (Tuesday 2 April 2019), officers from the Newcastle City Police District attended a primary school on Union Street, The Junction, after reports a man had climbed onto the roof of the single-story building and refused to get down.
Police were told the man had already been escorted from school grounds but jumped over the school’s rear fence and climbed onto the roof.
The man refused police instruction to get down and instead began throwing tiles and items of clothing off the building.
The school was placed in lockdown before, after several hours, all staff and students left the school grounds.
At about 8:30pm (Tuesday 2 April 2019), the man surrendered to police and was arrested.
No one was injured during the incident.
The 43-year-old man was taken to Mater Hospital for assessment before he was taken to Newcastle Police Station where he was charged with enter inclosed land not prescribed premises without lawful excuse (three counts), destroy or damage property (two counts), and common assault.
He was refused bail to appeal at Newcastle Local Court today (Wednesday 3 April 2019).
