IF it was not so serious it could have been a scene straight out of a Carry On film.

The brief was to find a man they wanted to speak to about an alleged assault on a woman – but the only place they did not look was the very spot where they left him!

For 13 long hours teams of specialist police and negotiators had been trying to talk Derek Johnson down from the rooftop of a Southampton townhouse.

But when their efforts seemed to be failing they decided to change tactics and gradually withdraw from the scene – leaving not a single officer there to keep an eye on him.

It was in the early hours of yesterday that police who were passing by the house in Gainsford Road noticed that Mr Johnson, 39, had indeed come down of his own volition – but he was nowhere to be seen and they thought he had given them the slip.

Throughout yesterday officers across the city were on alert and busy searching for Mr Johnson, who recently came out of prison after being jailed for assault.

But the manhunt finally ended just before 3pm when he was finally found and arrested on suspicion of assault by red-faced police – exactly where they had left him.

Hampshire police last night said they were launching a review into how they handled the situation and whether anything could have been done differently concerning the decision to leave the scene of the rooftop drama that led to them chasing the tail of a man who was never even missing.

They however refused to be drawn over the embarrassing situation concerning the arrest of Mr Johnson, who was found underneath a bed, and whether any search had ever been carried out inside the property where he was found. The father of the woman who was allegedly assaulted by Mr Johnson has also demanded answers about the shambolic efforts of police, describing it as “a huge disgrace”.

The man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, told the Daily Echo: “I just cannot believe, be it my daughter or anyone else’s, that police thought it right to just walk away and leave him to it.

“To then find out many hours later that they believed he had got away and they didn’t know where he was is just unbelievable.

“Then you get the news that they have found him – inside the very house where he had been sat on the roof all day and night. It begs the question of just what the officers were doing and if they even bothered to look? It doesn’t seem that they have been very thorough at all.”

The man has also raised his concerns with his local MP as well as registering a complaint with the office of Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Hayes, and said if it wasn’t so serious it would be “laughable”.

He added; “My daughter is absolutely distraught and very shaken by what has happened. She is not happy about the decision-making process and what unfolded.

“I am a great supporter of the police and the work that they do, but this is a situation that should never have been allowed to happen and questions must be answered and action taken so it cannot happen again.”

• Police were today continuing to quiz Derek Johnson on suspicion of assault.

‘Police maintained an active review of the situation throughout the night’

SOUTHAMPTON’S police chiefs today said a review was under way into how they handled the rooftop stand-off.

A spokesman revealed how the decision to start reducing the number of officers at the scene in Gainsford Road was made at 8.30pm – nine hours after Mr Johnson climbed on to the slates – because they felt the high level of emergency service presence was not helping the situation.

It then staggered the reduction in numbers of officers until 12.30am on Wednesday, when there were no police permanently left at the scene and all officers were withdrawn.

The situation, they say, was then “actively reviewed” and checks were made at the address “overnight” until it was discovered at 2am that Mr Johnson had come down but “could not be found”.

Superintendent Ben Snuggs said: “The decision to withdraw officers was made on the basis of the information available at the time.

This was undertaken by considering a range of factors which included the man’s safety, the safety of those surrounding him, the likelihood of securing him safely and the ongoing impact on the local community.

“There were various stages of response that were proportionate to the danger to those involved in the situation.

“Police maintained an active review of the situation throughout the night and ensured that other people involved in the incident who originally called for police were kept safe and updated.”

He added: “We understand there are questions around the way this incident was handled. As with all incidents of this nature and scale, we will review how it was dealt with, look at our operational practice and explore whether or not there is anything we could have done differently.

“I would like to thank the public for their help and patience during yesterday’s incident and reassure them that at no stage did we believe this man posed a risk to the wider public.”