Gun seige

In a series of extraordinary phone calls, David Roustoby, 29, explained to the newspaper why he would not give himself up to armed officers surrounding his house off Windmill Lane, in Heslington.

Both Evening Press reporter Alex Lloyd and editorial assistant Rachel Lacy spoke to Mr Roustoby, urging him to give himself up. He eventually did at 12.05pm.

Inspector David Porter, of York Police, said: "We were in negotiations for some time and then he gave himself up peacefully." He said that Mr Roustoby had been arrested and taken into custody.

It brought to an end a siege of more than five hours, which began after police received a phone call informing them that he was armed inside the house.

Armed police officers surrounded it in the early hours, calling on him to come out and give himself up, but he refused.

During the siege, Mr Roustoby told the Evening Press that he had a replica PPK Walther German pistol, but he had not threatened anyone with it.

He said: "It is perfectly legal to buy something like this and to own it, providing you have not used it in an offensive manner. It does look offensive, I admit, but it doesn't fire anything."

"I've got about nine police officers pointing guns at me. You would not believe it. I have the worst luck in the world."

These were the words of David Roustoby, the man who sparked an armed police siege, in an extraordinary phone call to the Evening Press newsroom today.

The 29-year-old broke off negotiations with North Yorkshire Police to tell reporters why he was refusing to come out of his house off Windmill Lane, Heslington, and give himself up.

Armed police had surrounded his home after receiving a call in the early hours to tell them that the University of York employee, who has a previous conviction for a gun-related offence, was inside and armed.

But Mr Roustoby said that the first he knew of it was when his phone rang at 7.30am - and he saw the officers outside.

Yet he defiantly refused to come out for the next five hours, until negotiators, his solicitor, and even two Evening Press staff, Rachel Lacy and Alex Lloyd, persuaded him it was the right thing to do.

He told the Evening Press that he was reluctant to do so because he believed he had done nothing wrong.

"I don't believe I have committed a crime," he said.

"I don't want to be arrested and go down to the cops. I have told them several times that I am prepared to hand them the replica and let them in, but they are not prepared to do that."

Mr Roustoby admitted he had a replica Walther PPK German pistol in the house - a gun made famous by James Bond - which he bought from a shop in Goodramgate three months ago.

"I bought it because I like to feel safe in my home. There has been quite a lot of street crime in the area. Sometimes I feel vulnerable. I bought it just to keep upstairs," he said.

"It is perfectly legal to buy something like this and to own it, providing you have not used it in an offensive manner. It does look offensive, I admit, but it doesn't fire anything."

He believes the situation was sparked off after he took the gun out of his safe last night to show his partner's 16-year-old son.

"I am not one for keeping secrets. Unfortunately, my partner did not really like it," he said, adding that she had left him in the early hours with her two children after a three-and-a-half year relationship.

"I wish to God I had never showed him it. I thought it would help to reassure him."

Mr Roustoby was jailed in 2002 after pleading guilty to affray and causing actual bodily harm to a policewoman after an incident involving a blanks-firing starter pistol when he was drunk.

The police officer was so traumatised by the experience that she decided to stop being a uniformed officer.

During the siege, Mr Roustoby told the Press: "I am absolutely terrified."

"All the neighbours have been out to work this morning and seen this. It doesn't matter what the outcome of this is, even if the police say 'you have done nothing wrong' - my name will still be associated."

Neighbour John Hagerty said: "I left the house at about 7am this morning to drop my partner off at work and when I came out of the house there were loads of armed police and dogs in the cul-de-sac. I went to drop her off and when I came back I was not allowed back into my house where my kids were."

Updated: 15:54 Tuesday, November 02, 2004