AN INQUEST opens today into the death of a man found with a gunshot wound after a four-day armed siege in a Parkstone home.

Paul Green, 44, died on May 5 last year, after barricading himself inside a house in Haskells Road with a shotgun.

A postmortem examination revealed the cause of his death as a single gunshot wound to the chest.

The siege began four days earlier, in the early hours of the morning, when police said Mr Green burst into the house.

A man and four young children were taken to safety, and a 26-year-old woman later fled the building.

She was taken to hospital with a number of serious injuries and bruising all over her body, but was later released to be with her children.

Residents in adjoining properties were evacuated to Rossmore Leisure Centre and caravans in Rockley Park and other householders in the street were ordered to stay indoors as dozens of police officers, including a dog handler and armed police, surrounded the house.

Trained negotiators tried to work with Mr Green, of Yeovil, but police marksmen eventually entered the house after hearing a gunshot inside, and discovered his body.

Ian Bynoe, the Independent Police Complaints Commissioner, supervised an investigation by Dorset Police's Detective Superintendent Phil James into the police handling of the situation, as an automatic requirement given the circumstances of the man's death.

The IPCC took no further action against the police as a result of the investigation, but the findings have not been released to the public.

First published: October 11