A TRAINED police negotiator had to be called in to talk a 20-year-old Blackburn man down from the roof of the Thwaites Brewery tower to end a three hour drama.

Blackburn magistrates heard that Mark Anthony Leggat had been threatening to throw himself off the building and had brandished two knives when armed police first approached him at 1.15am. The officers managed to persuade him to drop the knives, which he had threatened to stab them with, but it was another two hours before he was persuaded away from the edge and down to safety.

Leggat, of Hollin Bridge Street, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to two charges of possessing offensive weapons. He was given a community rehabilitation order for 18 months. Elliott Taylforth, defending, said three incidents had given Leggat genuine reasons to fear for his safety, although he never intended to use the weapons.

By the time of the Thwaites brewery incident his mental health had deteriorated and he was a risk to himself.