Moment neighbour smashes flats with axe before donning scuba gear, clutching spear & hiding in bathtub full of water
SHOCKING footage shows the moment a man smashed flats to pieces with an axe in a horror siege.
Michael Hockey, 55, was captured on camera after he armed himself with an axe, spear and samurai sword to mount an out of control attack.
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Video showed a bare-chested Hockey battering in his neighbours' doors and windows with the axe.
A neighbour can be heard desperately pleading with "Mike" to stop the frenzied rampage during the footage to no avail.
Hockey, of Pontypool, Wales, then set fire to his own house in the next bout of chaos.
Cops were called after Hockey barricaded himself inside the building - and arrived to find him in scuba-diving gear and breathing apparatus while holding a spear.
Armed officers and a negotiator were called to the siege in Pontypool, South Wales, and when they cut the power to his flat he shouted "b*****s" at them.
The court heard Hockey caused £31,000 of damage during the two hour stand-off.
When officers and firefighters eventually entered Hockey was found in a bath full of water.
The crazed attacker had to be tased and blasted with a water hose before his arrest.
Prosecutor Tom Roberts said in the days leading up to the police siege, Hockey had been "behaving erratically" and "playing loud music."
He said: "He had been ranting and raving and making threats against a neighbour.
"The defendant screamed that he was a traitor and said he was going to tear his face off and kill him."
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He added: "He was described as snarling like a dog and said he was going to shoot him with a bow and arrow."
Mr Roberts said Hockey then began hitting his neighbour's front door with an axe.
"The victim, who has Asperger's, was terrified and was struggling to make sense of what was happening," he said.
"He thought he was going to get into his flat and kill him."
Hockey was sectioned under the Mental Health Act following the incident at the apartments owned by housing association Melin Homes on August 15, 2023.
He said he had been watching TV "when Tarot card readers began communicating with him."
After the arrest, officers found that Hockey had been growing 11 cannabis flats in his apartment.
He was also armed to the teeth with cops finding a whip, a bow and arrow and an old police truncheon.
Hockey admitted arson reckless as to whether life was endangered, affray, cultivating cannabis and criminal damage at Newport Crown Court.
Alice Sykes, defending, said the event that day might have been triggered by a psychotic episode brought on by drug use.
She added that Hockey had shown "genuine remorse".
Judge Matthew Porter-Bryant said it was lucky that no one had been injured or killed and commended the emergency services for their actions.
"Thankfully, only time and money was lost here," he added.
Hockey of Sebastopol, Pontypool was jailed for two years and six months.
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The Sun
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- The Sun
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HE was a PhD student by day, and a sadistic 'Crossbow Cannibal' by night - a monster hiding in plain sight. But few know the horrors committed by Stephen Griffiths better than the officer who raided his chilling flat, greeted by the stench of death and horrific discoveries that made the "hair at the back of your neck stand up". 16 Between 2009 and 2010, the sick monster - now aged 55 - killed three sex workers operating close to his flat on the edge of Bradford's red light district, cannibalising and dismembering them. But the self-styled 'Crossbow Cannibal' - who fantasised about becoming a serial killer - saw his twisted spree come crashing down when chilling CCTV footage exposed his final, brutal act. In May 2010, Griffiths was caught on film with a crossbow in hand, attacking a woman who had followed him into his flat in Bradford. The grainy footage showed her trying to flee, with Griffiths chasing her down. It was a scene so disturbing that the caretaker who discovered it immediately called his manager and then the police. One of the officers brought in was Damian Sharp, a former firearms tactical advisor, who was urgently called to one of West Yorkshire Police's major planning stations. Speaking exclusively to The Sun, as part of our Meeting a Monster series, Damian recalls: "Whatever that security man's motives were for checking the footage, it's extremely good he did because it probably saved the lives of a lot of women. "In regards to the woman in the footage, when we got the call, we had to make the assumption that she was still alive. "She was dragged back into the flat and is essentially a hostage, and has been rendered unconscious. "It was not a good situation at all, especially with the crossbow. We treated it as a hostage situation, but we were dealing with what we call a collapsing timeframe. "We had to keep the wheels turning because every second counted. A hostage situation can turn fatal very quickly." 'Crossbow Cannibal' who dismembered and ate his victims 'is attacked in prison AGAIN The tactical plan was clear - surround the building, box Griffiths in, and storm the flat before he had a chance to act again. Tasers were drawn, and officers prepared to strike. "The officers barged in and he was in bed", Damian recalls. "He didn't know what was going on. "The preemptive Taser was taken out because the officer thought there was no requirement for that. He was clearly not a threat. "He was cuffed, and then he changed from being compliant to a bit cocky almost and almost abrasive. "And obviously, there was an immediate search of the apartment. Unfortunately, no female was found." 16 In that moment, the team's worst fears were confirmed. The woman in the footage was gone. Griffiths had already killed her and disposed of her remains. 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She was Griffiths' final victim, having already murdered 31-year-old Shelley Armitage in April 2010 and Susan Rushworth, 43, in June the previous year. Damian, who has dealt with some of the UK's most evil criminals, says: "As far as what he did to those girls, the Crossbow Cannibal is right up there. I don't think it gets much worse than what he did. "He showed no remorse for what he'd done. He bragged about it. He was quite pleased with himself." Sister's horror Now, a new Amazon Prime documentary, The Crossbow Cannibal, examines Griffiths' heinous crimes and the vile way he gained his moniker. In the film, his estranged sister Caroline breaks her silence for the first time to talk about her brother's actions, suggesting she had long sensed he was hiding a darkness. Describing the gut feeling she had when a news report talked about a killer, she says: "I was enjoying my fish and chips and the BBC news was on. "It came on that a 40-year-old man from Bradford. Arrested. Body parts [were] found in a river. As far as what he did to those girls, the Crossbow Cannibal is right up there. I don't think it gets much worse than what he did. He showed no remorse for what he'd done. Damian Sharp "I made this funny noise - kind of sucked air through my teeth. And I just said, 'My brother. I bet you that's my brother'." She adds: 'I watch true crime and I think that's terrible. But then I also think my brother did worse than that. "You hear about people chopping people up, and you think it's awful, and then the words 81 pieces come into your head. "And you never really come to terms with it. But it's real. It happened." Sickest crimes 16 16 After Griffiths' arrest, he was quickly linked to Susan and Shelley's disappearance, as cops feared another case of the Yorkshire Ripper, who killed more than 22 women. His first kill came in June 2009 when he targeted Susan. In the film, Christa Ackyord, a Yorkshire -based journalist, says: "I know mutual friends. I've talked to her brother. She literally went down the wrong track. It was all going so well for Susan. "She was married, she had children, she was also a grandma." But Susan's life fell apart when her marriage failed, and she turned to drugs and prostitution. She tried to get things back on track, but fell back into addiction. She was last seen walking near the red light district in Bradford, where she'd sometimes sold sex to fund her habit. That morning, Susan told a friend she was "just going to see a punter" - unaware she was about to walk into the hands of a cold-blooded killer. Her client was Stephen Griffiths. He had spotted her before and lured her in under the guise of paying for sex. Once inside his flat, Susan was never seen alive again. Sickening spree There were multiple police appeals and efforts to locate Susan. Exactly what happened inside remains unknown - her body was never found. Susan's family were left devastated. 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The Herald Scotland
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The vandalism Palestine Action inflicted is already a criminal offence. But the four people arrested in connection with the Brize Norton attack have been arrested not, as you might expect, in connection with criminal damage, but under the Terrorism Act. This despite the fact that attacks on military air bases are not new. In 2017, two men cut through fences at BAE Warton in an attempt to target fighter jets destined for Saudi Arabia and attacks on Yemen. They were charged with but acquitted of criminal damage. In 2003, a group of anti-war protesters broke into RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire to sabotage US bombers before they flew to Iraq. Keir Starmer knows this because he defended them on the grounds they were trying to stop the planes from committing war crimes. Apparently, Starmer has no such qualms about war crimes now or at least not the ones being carried out by Israel. It's impossible — isn't it, given the way events have unfolded? — not to notice that the crackdown is being carried out selectively, and with one particular brand of activism in mind. That's what the smearing of pro-Palestinian protesters on peaceful marches exposes. A pro-Palestine protest at Westminster. (Image: PA) But the proscription of a particular group on political grounds is dangerous on multiple fronts. It may become a self-fulfilling prophecy, tipping that that group into violent acts its members would not otherwise have countenanced. And it sets a precedent for the future proscription of any protest group whose goals any government doesn't like. When suffragette statues were being attacked by trans rights activists last year, Cooper described them as honouring 'women who fought for freedom and justice' though they committed acts similar to the ones she is now trying to proscribe, and were mostly loathed by the politicians of their day. History will judge her government for its targeting of those who — in the face of establishment recalcitrance — are also driven to take direct action. Perhaps future Home Secretaries will praise pro-Palestinian protesters as champions of freedom and justice. But how many more will die in Gaza before that day comes?
