A protestor who told police negotiators he was going to blow himself up if they entered his home during a bomb hoax incident, was spared jail today (Wednesday).

Richard Johnson, from Chalfont St Peter, told a 999 call handler he had wired himself up to two laptops and had turned the gas on in his Glebe Road home where he was ready and waiting while crouched in a corner so the firearms squad could not “red dot” him, a judge was told.

He heard how the 51-year-old had said: “If you want to send officers in then you are in a right old situation. It is the end and I am going with a bang. You have got a right big one on tonight. If you enter I am gonna blow it up.”

Asked by the call handler what he would blow up, prosecutors said Johnson had replied: “Mega stuff."

Prosecutor Phillip Allman told how Johnson had claimed the two laptops - a Rasberry PI and an Apple Mac - were emitting 240 volts of electricity and were set up to explode the gas reportedly leaking into the property, outside which police cars, ambulances, firearms squads and specially trained negotiators had arrived on September 19 last year.

Mr Allman said: “Trained negotiators were able to build up a rapport with the defendant and subsequently entered the property to find him lying on the floor. There was no suspicious wiring or other arrangements which matched those in the call.”

The court heard how Johnson had been demanding medication during the 999 call to stop him drinking and he had admitted in police interview that he had made the call and the information he had given was false.

He said he had been drinking prior to the incident and was too embarrassed to listen to recordings of the call.

A month later, on October 28 last year, he was arrested for obstructing the railway at Gerrards Cross, where he stood on the bridge above the tracks for over an hour until police were able to talk him down. He claimed he had been on the bridge in protest.

Judge Francis Sheridan, sentencing him in Aylesbury Crown Court on November 27 for the bomb hoax, said: “He was protesting over lack of treatment. He was protesting because he wanted medical help.”

Prosecutors told how Johnson had received a conditional discharge in relation to obstructing the railways when he was sentenced in April this year.

Judge Sheridan said: “He is not going to prison today. This is compassion for the mentally ill, which I think judges should do. It is our duty to do this where it is appropriate.

“This was a scream from a mentally ill man for somebody to assist him.“

Speaking to Johnson, Judge Sheridan said: “You were desperate and at the end of your tether and although you may not have intended to commit suicide, you were undoubtedly full of suicidal ideation. Thank heavens you did not carry it through.”

Johnson was sentenced to a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, including 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days and a requirement that he must take all medication as advised by his medical practitioners.