Father kills himself after baby siege

A DISTRAUGHT father who barricaded himself into a house after kidnapping his baby daughter was found dead yesterday after a four- hour siege.

The 28-year-old man had snatched the nine-month-old girl from the house after a family row. But he returned later and threatened to harm her.

Police negotiators tried but failed to talk to him and when they forced their way into the house they found him slumped unconscious upstairs.

Paramedics battled to revive him but he was dead on arrival at hospital.

The baby girl, who was unharmed, was later reunited with her mother at the house in Lindfield, near Haywards Heath, West Sussex.

Inspector Graham Brown said the Police Complaints Authority would be holding an investigation into the siege. A post mortem would be held to find the cause of the man's death.

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