38-year-old Joseph Dowling had been on a 12-hour drinking binge before things escalated at a pub in Rainworth, Nottinghamshire, leading to a five-hour stand-off with police

A drunken yob who had embarked on a 12-hour drinking binge was caught on CCTV as he hurled roof tiles at police officers with whom he was caught in a five-hour standoff.

Joseph Dowling, 38, "kicked off" at a pub in Nottingham earlier this year after drinking heavily, and decided to scale the roof before raining tiles down on officers below. Dowling managed to cause £8,000 worth of damage after he climbed onto the roof of the Lurcher Pub in Rainworth on April 19, and erupted into a furious anti-cop rant.

The drunken man ranted that his heroes were Raoul Moat - an ex-con who killed one person and injured two others in a 2010 shooting spree - and "all those who kill police officers". He also said he understood why female officers like the negotiator were raped before he eventually came down from the roof at around 4.30am on April 20 following the tense standoff, and was taken into custody.

Dowling, of Rainworth, went on to plead guilty to one count of affray and two counts of criminal damage and was jailed for 15 months on June 3. He was also made subject of a five-year restraining order at Nottingham Crown Court.

The court was told Dowling had started drinking at 11am and continued “steadily” for the next 12 hours before going to the landlady’s flat above the pub. They had been in a relationship since January after meeting on a dating app and she followed him up after hearing "banging and a commotion".

Philip Plant, prosecuting, said: "He was throwing things around and she thought he had been watching her on the pub CCTV. He pulled the screen off the wall, became abusive and refused to leave the flat."

The violence and abuse escalated after his ex-partner asked him to leave but he refused. He then climbed out of the kitchen window and onto the roof, damaging plant pots, while someone else rang the police at around 11.30pm.

The pub was cleared out after police arrived on scene and they began negotiating with him to try and bring the incident to a safe conclusion. But Dowling continued to be abusive and aggressive towards officers, smashed windows to the flat, ripped off roof tiles and threw them to the floor near officers.

The court heard that Dowling had previously been fitted with an alcohol abstinence tag for six months but had turned back to drinking following the death of his child. Denney Lau, defending, said: "He feels better after not drinking alcohol. He knows what his demons are and he wants to address them. He is remorseful."

Sentencing, Judge Michael Auty KC told him: "I have some measure of sympathy for you given the wretched circumstances that befell you. But you must understand you can’t go about behaving like this when you're in drink. If you do anything like this again you’re going to find yourself going downstairs for years.”

Detective Sergeant Emily Hewitt, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: "This was a challenging situation for us to deal with and our priority throughout was keeping people in the area safe, including Dowling who was on the roof. A number of police officers were involved in managing the scene and thankfully the incident was brought to a safe conclusion after Dowling eventually calmed down and came down from the roof following skilled negotiations.

"I’d like to thank local people for their patience and understanding while this incident was safely dealt with. I’d also like to commend the officer in this case, investigator Kathleen Simpson, for her hard work and the other officers who helped to pull everything together to achieve a good result."