Weapons, drugs and cash found in siege house
Acting DI Matt Lawrence today revealed that parts of a handgun, ammunition for that gun, an electric stun gun, a large quantity of class A drugs believed to be cocaine and a four-figure sum of cash have so far been found at the house in Delgany Drive after the siege on Thursday.
Tavistock Road was sealed off for four hours while armed officers tried to talk a man out of the property. He climbed onto the roof, wielding a blow-torch and throwing down slates, before throwing himself to the ground.
He was struck with a baton round and taser charges.
ADI Lawrence said: "Inquries are continuing, as are the searches of the premises."
The revelation of the the finds at the house came as a neighbour exclusively released images to the Herald she took while trapped in her house, fearing for the safety of her family.
The mother of three, who wishes to remain anonymous, was sitting in her front room using her laptop on Thursday when the drama unfolded outside her flat in Harford Court.
When she looked through her window she was faced with the sight of an armed siege opposite, with a man on the roof of a large five-bedroom house.
She described the scene: "At 10.15am I heard a helicopter hovering above our flat, then at around 1pm, when I was sat working at my computer, I heard a man crying loudly. Around five minutes later two policemen knocked on my door and told me to move away from the window and get down, but they refused to say why."
A few minutes later more armed police wearing gas masks surrounded the man's house.
Thursday's operation shut down a stretch of the A386 between Powisland Drive and Derriford roundabout to traffic and pedestrians shortly after midday after dozens of officers – including those from Devon and Cornwall Constabulary's firearms unit – swooped on the address.
The witness described how she saw a man climb onto the roof from the west side of the property carrying what she believed to be a blow torch.
The police told all the residents in the block of flats to move away from the window and hide, although most of the neighbours were not at home at the time. Up to 10 more police officers carrying guns surrounded the house.
The man couldn't see most of the officers as they were hiding, he was going crazy, I'm not sure what was wrong with him.
At this point she described how she feared for her life, and the life of her child.
"I didn't know what was going to happen next, so I quickly rang my husband."
"I told him what was happening. My heart was beating so fast and hard, he was very concerned and told me to stay calm and move into the rear bedroom, where one of my children was asleep."
If she had ventured downstairs into the kitchen she would have been in direct view of the man on the roof, as her spiral stairway features a large full-drop window, so she stayed upstairs out of sight.
"I moved into the back bedroom but peered through a small gap in the door to see what was happening," the woman said.
As a keen photographer she always keeps her camera close by, and after hastily grabbing it she managed to capture the dramatic images we show here, revealing the scale of the operation.
She said: "The man was swaying from side to side while carrying the blow torch in his hands."
The mother continued watching for around an hour as the man walked around while talking on his mobile phone. She said he was crying, shouting and waving the 'blow torch' at the police officers below.
She said: "At one point he slipped on the wet roof tiles and dropped the blow torch in the roof guttering, he then carefully retrieved it and continued walking around crying while still on his mobile phone."
The man then started running from one end of the roof to the other as if he wanted to come down, and after a few minutes walked back and out of sight of the flat owner.
She also witnessed smoke from what appeared to be fireworks being let off on the roof which generated a lot of noise.
"There was lots of smoke in the air, which you can see in some of my pictures," she said.
Police walked around the property and tried to see if the man had fallen off the roof, but he was still there and attempted to climb back inside the house.
At around 2.30pm some of the Tactical Aid Group pulled off their gas masks. It was at this point the woman was forced to leave the flat and pick up her other children from school. She is relieved the incident is now over.
She said: "I don't know what's happened in his life, but I'm sure it must be awful, I hope he is ok and receives the help he needs. This felt like I was in the middle of a bad movie."
Stephen Hawken, 45, of Delgany Drive, Derriford, was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of unlawful imprisonment. Today he was still in custody at Derriford Hospital.
Lead investigator, Acting Det Insp Matt Lawrence, said he was working with Det Supt Michelle Slevin, the force's Senior Investigations Officer adviser, and had a team of around 30 officers working on the ongoing inquiry.
He said the large five-bedroom house was still being searched by specialist officers and the work would continue for the foreseeable future.
