Reporter helps to end rooftop protest


Reporter Elliot Furniss (above) ended up featuring in his own news story after playing a key role in persuading a man to end a lengthy rooftop protest.

Furniss was dispatched by the Ipswich Star after the paper's newsdesk was tipped off that a man was staging a demonstration on a Suffolk county council building roof about his family's treatment by social workers.

The man had already been on the roof for four hours when Furniss arrived at the scene. And he looked likely to stay there because he had a flask of tea, sandwiches and a sleeping bag.

Police and trained negotiators had had no luck in talking him down. So Furniss suggested to police that he might budge if they told him that the Star could tell his side of story.

"It seemed to work," Furniss reported. He was coaxed down and later gave an interview to the reporter in the back of a police van.

It transpired that he was upset about a child within his extended family being subject to an adoption hearing.

After the interview, the man - who cannot be named for legal reasons - was arrested and charged with public order offences. He was later released on bail.

Source: Ipswich Star

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