A MAN who had a row with his girlfriend staged a rooftop siege for two-and-a-half-hours, a court was told yesterday.

Alan Williams, 32, went home to collect his belongings but ended up locking himself in with a female neighbour in Lanchester Road, Grangetown, Teesside.

He panicked when police arrived with CS gas and batons.

He armed himself with a hammer and a seven-inch kitchen knife, which he stabbed through a hole in the front door.

He also smashed through tiles on to the roof, from where he threw a bicycle wheel and toys at police below.

Williams, who was agitated and on anxiety-relieving drugs, had been drinking, but after two-and-a-half-hours, he climbed down unaided.

Christine Egerton, in mitigation, said Williams needed bereavement counselling after the deaths of his parents.

Williams, of Granville Road, Grangetown, was given a two-year Community Rehabilitation Order, with conditions to attend a Think First programme and Cognitive Skills Booster programme, after he pleaded guilty to causing an affray on Tuesday, June 24.