Posted April 12, 2019 17:29:48 A teacher in a school in Western Sydney has said he is “completely normal” despite being threatened with a knife by a man who reportedly held his hostage in a classroom.
The man, identified only as Paul, told the ABC he was in the school’s kindergarten building when he heard someone scream “f**k off, f**k” outside.
The school’s principal said Paul, who is in his 20s, was taken into custody by police.
He said he has been discharged from hospital and the school is “safe and secure”.
Paul said he had been in the building for five months and that the man he said was holding him was a “friend”.
He said the man told him he was going to hurt himself and that he wanted to kill himself because he had lost hope he would get out of prison.
Paul said the incident took place on April 8 and he was waiting outside the school building for the school to open.
He described the man who held him as being tall, thin, and with a beard.
Paul told the broadcaster he was holding a knife in his left hand and told the man “you better not hurt yourself, because I’m going to kill you”.
He also said the suspect yelled “f*** off, you mother f**ker” and threatened to shoot him.
He told the news program that he went to his bedroom to get a shower and heard someone say “I’m coming for you” and the doorbell rang.
Paul, a full-time teacher at the school, said he did not know what the man had said and asked if he had heard the other person.
He saw a woman who said “yes” and then saw a man come in.
Paul walked out and saw the man, who was wearing a dark jumper, carrying a backpack and “wearing gloves”.
Paul described the suspect as wearing a long-sleeved shirt, black trousers and dark shoes.
He also saw a backpack on the ground.
“He didn’t seem to be threatening anyone,” Paul said.
“I was standing on the steps of the school and he just said ‘I’m not coming back’ so I went outside and I thought, ‘what the f*** is going on?'”
Paul said that when he saw the school was safe, he went home to his family.
He was later arrested and charged with aggravated burglary, assault occasioning bodily harm, threatening and uttering threats to kill, aggravated assault and criminal damage.
Paul is due to appear in the Sydney Magistrates Court on April 13.
Paul has previously spoken of his desire to help others and his “complete and total support” to his mother.
He is not related to the man’s mother.
“They are really good friends.
They’re just normal people who have got a few friends, so that’s why they came here and that’s what made it so easy for me,” he said.
Paul was told he was not allowed to leave the building until April 15, the day he was to begin his sentence.
Paul’s mother, Sarah, said her son had been “completely and totally normal” throughout the incident.
“There was a lot of shock, shock and fear, but it was not at all that bad, because he’s been through a lot, he’s a very strong, intelligent person and he’s always been a strong person,” she said.
“I think he’s totally normal, he doesn’t have any mental health issues or anything like that.
He’s just an absolutely normal, healthy person.”
The mother said she had no idea what happened and would not have let her son leave the school without her knowledge.
“If I’d known, I wouldn’t have let him out of the building,” she told news.com .au.
“What he’s done, he should never have been allowed out of that building.
It was absolutely horrible, it was horrific.”
Paul said his mother, who has a daughter in the same school, had told him she would not speak to him until after he was released.
“She just said, ‘don’t speak to me for a while because I need to look after myself,'” he said, adding that he had “no idea what’s going on”.
The ABC has asked the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research for details of any victims of crime who were victims of Paul’s actions.
Topics:law-crime-and-justice,police,schools,school-and -learning,children,victims-of-crime,school,nsw,sydney-2000,barwon-3056
