A three-day rooftop standoff with Strangeways prison staff has come to an end as convicted murderer Stuart Horner surrendered.
At around 3am this morning, Wednesday 16 September, the 35-year-old was taken down from HMP Manchester by a Greater Manchester Fire crew cherry picker.
The 60-hour protest ended when Horner was promised a pizza by negotiators.
Horner was jailed for 27 years in May 2012 after his uncle Ian Taylor was shot in the chest with a sawn-off shotgun during a family argument.
He yelled to reporters that he had “proved his point”.
It began on Sunday afternoon at Southall Street in Manchester when Horner climbed an 18ft fence to appear on the rooftop, balancing precariously some 80ft above the ground.
Initially appearing in blue and yellow pyjamas, he later stripped to a pair of Manchester United boxer shorts.
It’s estimated he’s caused thousands of pounds of damage by smashing the Victorian prison windows with a torn-off chunk of metal.
His protest was ostensibly over prisoner living conditions at HMP Manchester, which holds around 1,200 inmates.
Around 60 had to be moved to other parts of the prison for fear of falling glass from Horner’s vandalism.
By Tuesday evening what started as a small crowd of onlookers outside the prison gates grew to around 200 people, dancing to music blasting out of a PA system and captured on video by SalfordOnline.com readers.
WATCH: Strangeways party protest grows as crowds dance Cha Cha Slide
Extra police had to be drafted in to manage these farcical scenes.
By midnight on Tuesday the mood was turning ugly, with hooded youths taking any excuse to scuffle with officers.
On Monday The Prison Service, which runs HMP Manchester, said: “An incident at height involving a prisoner is ongoing at HMP Manchester.
“Negotiators are at the prison and there is no wider disruption to the establishment.”
The prison was rebuilt after 25 days of rioting broke out in 1990, when hundreds were injured and two people, including a prison officer, died.
