ROOF tiles and chimney bricks were thrown at police officers protected by riot shields as a man staged a lone protest atop a sex shop roof on Saturday.


After setting a fire on the roof of the recently refurbished Majestic soft play centre, a protester climbed onto the roof of Darlington’s Simply Pleasure sex shop and staged a stand-off that lasted almost two hours.

Bondgate was cordoned off while police deal with the incident, although bemused shoppers still tried to get through. 

A fire was put out at the nearby Majestic building. A witness told The Northern Echo that the fire was started deliberately while children were inside the building.

Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue confirmed they have put out a small fire, although an aerial ladder platform was later sent to the scene.

Police officers behind riot shields tried to talk the man down, but he continued to throw masonry as crowds of onlookers watched.

The Northern Echo:

Trained negotiators were called to the scene and the incident came to an end at about 1.45pm.

 

A spokeswoman from the Majestic said the historic building - a converted cinema - had escaped major damage but lost an original feature – an AC/DC electricity supplier - that had been earmarked as a museum piece.


She said staff had evacuated the building within two minutes.


She said no children had ever been in danger as the site of the fire was far from where the party was taking place.


A worker at Simply Pleasure said she had been left terrified by the incident.


She said: “I heard some commotion outside but we don’t have windows so I couldn’t see what was happening.


“Eventually, police officers came in and asked if they could access our roof but it was of no use to them and they just told me to stay put.


“This is a really old building and I thought he was going to come through the roof."