A POLICE officer who overpowered an Abertillery man threatening to set fire to himself at a Citizens' Advice Bureau has spoken out about the dramatic incident.

Detective Constable Paul Graham (pictured) kicked in the door at the bureau, after Steven Edmunds barricaded himself inside and threatened to torch the building.

Edmunds, of Hillcrest View in Cwmtillery, was this week given an 18-month community rehabilitation order by Abertillery magistrates.

The 36-year-old pleaded guilty last week to threatening to damage property, but sentencing was adjourned for a specific sentence report.

Edmunds went to the council building in Abertillery on March 18 with a can of petrol, following a five-month dispute with Blaenau Gwent council.

He mistakenly went into the Citizens' Advice Bureau, at the rear of the council offices, and shouted: "You'd better get out....I'm not joking....I'm going to set myself alight and the building!"

DC Graham told the Argus he was the only officer at Abertillery police station when a call came through about the incident.

He said when he arrived at the building, there were around half a dozen people outside who appeared to be very upset.

When he went down to the basement, he said, he could immediately smell petrol. "He had put chairs against the door.

"I asked him what the problem was and he said it was with the council." DC Graham then battered the door in and jumped on Edmunds, managing to handcuff and arrest him.

He said he hadn't considered his own personal safety and was just acting in the way that he had been trained.

"You just get on with it. I had a duty of care to the people, to the council workers and to him as well.

"You don't think about yourself," he added.

Tracy Wilkes, mitigating for Edmunds at the magistrates court, said no injury or damage had been caused during the incident.

Edmunds was said to have been at his "wit's end" over the dispute with the council, which evicted him from his home after he fell into water rate arrears.

Some of his property was wrongfully destroyed and when the authority admitted liability, Edmunds thought he would be reimbursed for £2,300 by their insurers Zurich. But on the day of the incident Zurich sent him a full and final offer of just £1,300.