Window Cleaner Witnessed Sydney Siege

Window cleaner David Wilson witnessed police descend on the cafe with guns drawn from his perch across the street. ‘We were on the outside a building on a ledge cleaning the windows…but we were quite high up.’

Sydney siege over, gunman dead: Three people are dead after police stormed a Sydney cafe overnight, ending a dramatic 16-hour siege in the city centre. The dead include the gunman in the Lindt cafe, self-styled Iranian cleric Man Haron Moris. At about 2.10am on Tuesday a "confrontation" occurred between police and a man who had taken a number of people hostage inside the Lindt cafe at Martin Place in the CBD, NSW Police said in a statement. Shots were fired.

A 50-year-old man was pronounced dead after being taken to hospital. Another man, 34, and a woman, 38, were also pronounced dead after being taken to hospital. Four people were injured, including a woman with a gunshot wound to her shoulder and a male police officer, who suffered a non-life threatening wound to his face from gunshot pellets.

The crisis, which began about 10am (AEDT) on Monday at the popular Lindt cafe, escalated dramatically about 2am on Tuesday when five hostages ran from the cafe. Minutes later, shots were fired and police stormed the premises. Paramedics quickly followed with stretchers and ambulances took the most seriously injured to hospitals around the city. Window cleaner David Wilson witnessed police descend on the cafe with guns drawn from his perch across the street.

Window cleaner, David Wilson, managed to get a birds-eye-view of police swarming into Martin Place as he and a colleague cleaned the windows of a building across from the Lindt Chocolate Café. ‘We were looking around and there were cops running around and guns drawn. Some people came out & they looked like your usual coffee drinkers and that was about all we saw,’ Mr Wilson said, adding that his colleague’s initial response was to get out his phone and start filming.

At least two gunmen were involved in the siege but dozens of armed police sealed off the streets surrounding the site.

Bank Of Ireland's Poster Boy

David Wilson of Rise 2 Shine

David moving up the ladder: Lurgan entrepreneur David Wilson has become the poster boy for Bank of Ireland thanks to his fast growing business. David (34), who started cleaning windows at the age of 15, is now the manager of Rise 2 Shine, a firm which specialises in contract cleaning and refrigeration services as well as his window cleaning roots.

David explained how he got his foot on the ladder in the window cleaning business. He said: “I was 15 or 16 and I asked Bunty (Ian Bunting) if he knew of any work going. He told me to call at his house. He gave me a ladder and told me to wash his windows. After I did that he told me to go round the doors in Thornhill Park and see if anyone else wanted their windows cleaned. “That’s how I got started. I fell in with different contractors and the business grew and grew.”

David married Adele in 2007, but before getting married he ‘put the serious head on’. He explained: “I was living at home and had no bills or mortgage hanging over me so it was a casual business. “In 2007 before I got married I decided it was time to put the serious head on and set up a business that I could make a living off. “Four years ago I went to Bank of Ireland. The company was growing and I needed a bank to back me. I haven’t looked back since.”

He gave thanks to the bank for their backing, in particular Gareth Williamson, branch manager in Portadown. The upward trajectory of David’s Rise 2 Shine business led Bank of Ireland to ask him to feature in a nationwide poster campaign. David employs upwards of 40 people and his contract and refrigeration services carry out work for major supermarkets all over the UK. He said: “I don’t do the window cleaning anymore myself but we still clean windows for some of my original clients.”