Furious man responds to redundancy information by holding bosses prisoners with shard of glass

Daniel Wheal, 35, had just been told he was losing his job when he snapped and ‘saw red’, grabbing a shard of glass from the jug he’d just smashed and locking his senior colleagues in a room

An angry employee who had been made redundant, “snapped and saw red”, holding two petrified senior bosses captive and making harrowing threats against their lives with a shard of broken glass.

In a fit of rage, Daniel Wheal shattered a glass on a table, trapping the men in the room with the chilling declaration: “You’re not leaving this room” and ominously stated: “At least one of us is not getting out of here.”

Wheal unleashed a torrent of “scary” words during the dreadful standoff just prior to Christmas, leaving the executives genuinely afraid for their lives, fearing they might not survive the ordeal in the locked room, as heard in Hull Crown Court.

Wheal, 35, from Lindengate Avenue, near Sutton Road, East Hull, pleaded guilty to dual charges of false imprisonment, as well as possession of an offensive weapon in a private place and causing criminal damage.

Prosecutor Cathy Kioko-Gilligan recounted how a Hull-based firm, employing 15 people, found itself in the tough position of needing to cut jobs. Accordingly, a meeting was slated at the Village Hotel on Henry Boot Way, West Hull, between Wheal and two of the enterprise’s chiefs, reports Hull Live .

Increasingly agitated, Wheal exploded into an “tirade”. He snapped a pencil in half before smashing a jug of water in an attempt to scare his bosses. “The defendant walked to the door of the conference room and locked it,” Miss Kioko-Gilligan recounted.

Increasingly perturbed, Wheal exploded into an agitated “tirade”. He snapped a pencil in half before smashing a jug of water in an attempt to scare his bosses. “The defendant walked to the door of the conference room and locked it,” Miss Kioko-Gilligan recounted.

Wheal declared: “We’re not getting out of here” before returning to the table, shattering another glass, and advancing towards the two men. One attempted to defuse the situation, explaining that the redundancy wasn’t personal against him.

Wheal expressed regret for his actions and acknowledged the frightening experience he caused for the two bosses. The damage incurred a cost of £232.

The men later expressed feeling fortunate to have escaped unscathed, recognising that the situation could have unfolded differently. “They felt that they might not have been here if officers had not attended,” Miss Kioko-Gilligan stated.

Defending Wheal, Benjamin Donnell emphasised that his client had no prior convictions. “This is out of character,” Mr Donnell said. “He ordinarily acts quite contrary to how he acted on this day.”

Judge John Thackray KC told Wheal during the sentencing: “When you were told that you were going to be made redundant, you behaved in an extremely threatening and violent way. You held them prisoner for about 15 or 20 minutes. You brandished a broken glass, which you had broken on the table.”

He then described the terrifying ordeal those held faced by saying: “You made some chilling threats to them. They must have been terrified. At one point, one of them was so scared that they were holding up a chair to fend you off when you had a shard of glass.”

Wheal, who had previously been out on bail, received a two-year jail sentence.