AN ELLESMERE man used his acting abilities to help fellow Wrexham Glyndwr University students hone their skills at a major annual learning simulation.

Keith Parry, 57, played a violent offender embroiled in a hostage situation at this year’s Crime Scene Day at Glyndwr.

Keith, in the second year of a theatre, television and performance degree, was among a group of students from the course to take part in the day.

“We had about three weeks to prepare for the role, we were given a brief about the character so we could get to grips with it – sort of," he said.

"The only thing we practiced were the fight sequences."

Keith – whose working life before his studies included qualifying as a baker/confectioner and teaching assistant – hopes to combine acting with producing and directing when he graduates from Glyndwr.

He said: “I really enjoyed portraying a baddie, as usually anything I do is comedic. The challenge for me was not hurt anyone and not to break character during the transitions.

This year’s day followed a successful similar event in 2019 and saw a team of theatre, television and performance students simulate an altercation at a badminton game played by sports students in the university’s sports hall.

The altercation, witnessed by psychology and criminology students, escalated quickly, with an onlooker apparently attacked with a mystery liquid – and a person abducted.

Policing Lecturer Andrew Crawford, one of the organisers of the event, said: “The idea behind our annual Crime Scene Day is that it gives students across a range of our courses the chance to test their skills in a fast-paced, realistic environment – with many getting the chance to collaborate with professionals in the careers corresponding to their degree.

“We are very grateful to North Wales Police and the Welsh Ambulance Service for helping us today. Their support makes the entire day more realistic for the students.”

As the staged incident progressed, Glyndwr’s security team called it in using a pre-prepared procedure – triggering an emergency services response to attend to casualties and to investigate the crime.

Working alongside the emergency services teams were students on the university’s policing and forensic Science courses, investigating the offences and securing evidence.

As the ‘suspects’ escaped, they were involved in a car crash – which was staged on campus and contained a number of clues about the participants which Forensic Science students would later examine as part of the developing investigation.

Forensic science programme leader Amy Rattenbury said: “As today’s incident progressed, our suspects left behind forensic evidence – and that evidence was examined by our students to help build up a picture of what had gone on.

“Students taking part in this part of the day were actually being formally assessed on their work as part of the event – making this perhaps one of the more interesting course assessments we have done here at the university!”

As Policing and Forensic Science students built up a picture of what had occurred, and briefed this back to a control room set up at the university’s Catrin Finch Centre, the action began to move towards the arrest of the suspects.

Two locations saw two suspects arrested – with one occurring at the university’s Human Performance Lab, and another developing into a tense stand-off with a suspected hostage.

As the scene was assessed, a trained police negotiator was called in to tackle the situation – now centred on Glyndwr’s dedicated crime scene investigation house, as Keith’s character held his former partner captive.

Following a tense stand-off, the release of the abductee was negotiated – and the main suspect was talked out of the house and arrested – before Keith finally broke character.