Pest who terrorised Leeds-town shop staff dies in custody awaiting new charges

Andrew Siberry, who had long litany of public offences, was being held on remand after being arrested earlier this year.

The 60-year-old’s case was called on at Leeds Crown Court this week where proceedings were formally discontinued.

Siberry, of Newfield Crescent, Cliff Top Park, Garforth, had been arrested earlier this year for exposure, outraging public decency and three counts of harassment in relation to breaches of a restraining order.

Remanded into custody, he was due in court on April 1, but was not well enough to attend. It is understood that he died around June 18, but no further details were disclosed.

Siberry, a former Leeds City Council architect, was jailed for 19 months in February 2024.

He was given a five-year restraining order for him to keep his clothes on in public and ban him from select shops in Garforth, including Tesco Express on Long Meadow Gate, Garforth Garden Centre on Selby Road and Fairburn Convenience Store on Fairburn Drive.

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Previous court hearings were told that suffered from bi-polar disorder, exacerbated by his use of alcohol and crack cocaine.

He was jailed in 2020 after being found in the bushes at Garforth’s Barley Hill Road play park with his trousers down.

In January last year he was given a community order for regularly verbally abusing and harassing staff and customers at the Tesco Express.

He tried to steal from the store or demand a taxi be called for him. He twice urinated outside the shop and on two occasions, his shorts fell down, exposing himself to passers by.

He threw a punch at the worker behind the counter in Fairburn Convenience Store and was also seen by a horrified female dog walker masturbating on the grass near a ginnel connecting Ninelands Lane and Fairburn Drive.