Paranoid boyfriend involved in eight hour armed stand off at his Leeds family home

A paranoid boyfriend was involved in an eight hour stand-off with police when he carried out the 'wholesale destruction' of his family home after a drink and cocaine binge.
Neil Denny. PIC: Ross ParryNeil Denny. PIC: Ross Parry
Neil Denny. PIC: Ross Parry

Armed police and negotiators had to be called in to house in Bramley after Neil Denny went into a jealous rage.

Denny wrongly convinced himself that there was another man hiding in the house when he returned home to his partner and two children from a beer festival.

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Leeds Crown Court heard Denny had become paranoid that his partner had been seeing other men and had installed CCTV camera at his home so he could monitor activities whenever he was not there.

Neil Denny. PIC: Ross ParryNeil Denny. PIC: Ross Parry
Neil Denny. PIC: Ross Parry

John Bull, prosecuting, said Denny returned home the “worse for wear” for drinking and had also been taking cocaine.

He woke his partner up and asked her who it was he could see on CCTV.

He mistakenly believed that someone was in the property and began looking around and house and checking under furniture to see if anyone was there.

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Denny then tried to look as his partner’s phone and she fell down the stairs as they argued.

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The two children awoke and she gave them the door key and told them to go to their grandmother’s to get help.

Mr Bull said: “The defendant then embarked on the wholesale destruction of the home.

He began slashing clothing with a knife and throwing belongings out of the bedroom windows. Around £5,000 worth of damage was caused.

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Police arrived at the house on Victoria Park Grove around 4am on December 8 last year and Denny was brandishing a air gun.

Neil Denny. PIC: Ross ParryNeil Denny. PIC: Ross Parry
Neil Denny. PIC: Ross Parry

Armed officers were called to the scene after Denny told them that the weapon was a Glock pistol.

Denny then barricaded himself in at the top of the stairs to stop anyone getting to him and a negotiator was called in.

At one point Denny told officers: “If you come up I will cut my jugular.”

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He was eventually talked in to giving himself up around midday.

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Mr Bull said: “In the course of the police interview he said he believed (the victim) had been having an affair and he had been paranoid and that drinking and cocaine did not help his condition.”

Denny, 35, pleaded guilty to affray, criminal damage and possession of an offensive weapon.

Sajid Majid, mitigating, said the incident happened after Denny returned to using the class A drug again many years after he had stopped.

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Mr Majid added: “He was seeing people in the house who were clearly not there and it resulted in the verbal disagreement with him and his partner.”

The court heard Denny and his partner are now back together

Denny was given a 20 month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to take part in a 50 rehabilitation activity requirement.

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