We got a call one Monday in November 1998 to say there was a rooftop protest at Low Newton Remand Centre in Durham and I was sent to the scene.

When I got there I saw there were four inmates on the roof but we were kept at least 100 yards away by police.

Apparently five youngsters had managed to escape the officers as they were being returned from a gymnasium to their wing in the late afternoon.

One was quickly recaptured while the rest managed to clamber on to a roof where they remained until 10.30pm when they came down voluntarily after speaking with prison negotiators.

I got there it was early evening, it was already dark and, even though I was using a fast 300mm F2.8 lens, I still had to really push the film speed – normally it would have been ISO 400 which I uprated to ISO 6400.

Despite this I was still getting a low reading so I decided the only option was to use the flash set to full manual and leave the film in the developer for longer than usual.

Of course once I fired the first shot I had their attention and they played up to the camera resulting in this shot – they even flashed their backsides at me but, for the sake of public decency, that shot has not not been published.

The film processing gamble paid off and I got this useable shot which was published by The Journal newspaper.

From The Journal on Wednesday, November 11, 1998.