'We said gunman could stay at our house' - Argoed siege couple (From Campaign Series)

'We said gunman could stay at our house' - Argoed siege couple

8:46am Friday 7th December 2012 in Campaign news

THE couple living in the Argoed siege house have told how they gave the man at the centre of yesterday's drama a roof over his head.

The shocked tenants of the Greenfield Terrace house told the Argus they had taken in the man – a family friend – as an act of kindness.

Gareth Beynon, 41, said the man approached him a couple of days previously and asked if he and his wife could stay, as he was having problems paying the rent.

“So I said they could stay.

Next thing I know, two police come here and he’s firing a nail gun from the bedroom at them. Then all the armed police turned up and broke down the door and window,” said Mr Beynon.

“He told me he was having issues with the council.

I didn’t knowhe was on the run. If I had known I wouldn’t have let him stay.

“We haven’t been allowed in the house since last night.

“The police got me and my wife out, and now they’re saying we have to wait another eight or so hours before we can get in the house, because forensics have to investigate.

“The police were here all night and we stayed next door, with my parents, and they wouldn’t even let us look out of the front door, they kept shouting at us to stay inside.”

Mr Beynon’s wife Tanya, 36, was in the bath when the drama began.

“If I hadn’t shouted I didn’t have any clothes on, they would have busted in,” she said.

“He was firing the nail gun at the police from the bedroom. The only reason it didn’t hit one of them is that it went through the bedroom door and got stuck. Then he was firing from the bedroom window at the back. It was so scary.

“We’ve only been married six months, and now this has happened. We have two dogs, and in all the noise one ran off and we can’t find him. He’s like our baby and we don’t know where he is.

“I just hope the landlord doesn’t chuck us out over all this. It’s only three weeks to Christmas too, it’s not ideal.

“I suppose this is what we get for trying to help out someone we thought of as a close friend.”