Man flattens house with mechanical digger

Terrified Janice Gledhill told last night how a maniac in a mechanical digger began reducing her house to this scene of utter devastation — with her still inside.



The holiday park owner was shaken awake at 7.15am yesterday by the roar of the machine trundling menacingly towards the home she shares on site with boyfriend James Harvard.



Minutes later plant hire operator Robert Taylor — furious at being asked for £1,000 in back rent — began a wrecking spree ended only by armed police.

Cops raced to the scene, but the first officers to arrive were powerless to stop Taylor, 52.

The digger driver calmly smashed aside a patrol car answering the 999 call, then:

Crushed the couple’s two luxury Chrysler cars, worth £80,000, parked by the house.

Raised the bucket to its full height and brought it down on the tiled roof of the four-bedroom home.

Flattened three sides of the timber-framed house with the digger’s arm, reducing it to a litter-strewn rubble.

Then asked if a van beside the only remaining wall could be shifted so he could smash it down.

Essex Police said: “A man in his 50s has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and criminal damage. He has been taken to hospital because of his medical condition and will be questioned when he is released.”

With photos, and there are more here.