Chorley man sparked lengthy stand-off with Lancashire Police after terrifying golf club attack in Lancaster

Jack Swindells was told by a judge that the lengthy stand-off with 999 services wasted valuable police, fire and ambulance time as they tried to get him and another man safely down.

At one point the two were said to have shouted threats to emergency crews that they would throw roof tiles at them in the street below if they didn’t back off. One slate hit the ground, but no-one was hurt, Preston Crown Court heard.

Recorder Ayesha Siddiqi told Swindells his erratic behaviour “took up a considerable amount of time (for police officers, firefighters and paramedics) that could have been better spent.”

The 22-year-old, of Bedford Street, Chorley, pleaded guilty to two charges of affray when he appeared for sentence.

The court was told Swindells and brothers Morgan and Cameron Bowes had been involved in a “terrifying” attack on the home of a woman and her daughter in Patterdale Road, Lancaster in October 2023. Three windows at the property were smashed by the two brothers wielding golf clubs.

The mother had said messages had been sent by Cameron Bowes to her daughter’s phone saying he was on his way round with the two others and was threatening to “punch your stepdad’s head off”.

When they arrived the mother went outside to talk to them and Swindells was shouting: “Get your husband outside, I’m going to stab him.” She thought he had a knife and when she said her husband was not at the house the two Bowes brothers smashed three of the windows using two golf clubs they had brought with them.

All three then ran off, but just over four hours later officers tracked down Swindells and Cameron Bowes to a house in Vale Road, Lancaster. They had barricaded the front door using dining chairs to prevent police gaining entry.

Officers eventually forced their way in, by which time the two men had climbed onto the roof of the two-storey end-of-terrace property and were threatening to pelt the emergency services with tiles if they came near.

Fire and ambulance services joined the police at the scene and trained negotiators from all three services tried to talk them down. Finally they succeeded and the men were arrested.

While on the roof Swindells was reported to have shouted: “It’s my fault, everything here is my fault.”

The two Bowes brothers, who both lived in Ambleside Road, Lancaster, were dealt with at a previous hearing after being found guilty of affray. Swindells admitted charges of affray at both addresses and was brought before Recorder Siddiqi for sentence.

Barrister Eleanor Myers, for Swindells, said her client had been a man of good character prior to this incident, although he had committed further offences in a brief spell afterwards because he had been going through a “difficult time” after breaking up with his partner.

During that period he had begun using substances and was “spending time with the wrong crowd”. But he had since been working hard to get his life back on track and was back with his partner and their child.

“He accepts he is not perfect, but he is a very different person today than he was at the start of this offending,” she told the judge. “There is (still) room for improvement, but he is on an upward trajectory.”

She said Swindells had not had a knife and, although he knew the brothers had golf clubs with them, he had not expected them to use them to cause any damage.

Recorder Siddiqi told him: “It must have been terrifying for the people that live in that (Patterdale Road) property. The way all three of you were behaving must have been terrifying.

“You appear to have been under the influence of something the way you were behaving that night.”

She gave Swindells a 13-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months. She also ordered him to complete five rehabilitation activity days, undertake a Building Choices programme, a six-month drug rehabilitation programme and undergo electronically monitored alcohol abstinence for 100 days.