A man is fighting for his life after falling from an old church roof while protesting against the amount he receives in benefits.
Joseph McAteer, 36, was heard shouting "how am I going to live on £29 a month?" before plunging 50ft from the rooftop in Preston, Lancashire.
He remains on a life support machine at Royal Preston Hospital and is yet to regain consciousness.
His dad Joseph McAteer Sr said he bumped into his son on the day of the horror incident on August 16 and said he seemed frustrated following a signing on session at the job centre.
An hour later Mr McAteer Sr, 65, walked past a police cordon near the old Fishergate Baptist Church, now Bistrot Pierre, as he headed home at around 5.20pm before realising his son Joseph was on the roof above.
The terrified dad told the Mirror: "He was at his wits' end. He was shouting at me 'how am I going to live on £29 a month?'
"I said 'come down, Joseph, or you’ll kill yourself.'"
A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said Joseph had not had his Universal Credit payments sanctioned and his monthly pay is actually much higher than £29.
Mr McAteer said his son is a recovering heroin addict and believes he had been struggling to keep up with jobseeker sign ons, as well as other DWP requirements.
He said police told him he couldn't come past the tape and pleaded with them: "I can, that's my son."
Mr McAteer then worked with officers to speak to Joseph over the phone but eventually he threw his phone off the roof and it smashed on the ground.
Joseph was on the roof for a couple of hours from around 5pm, his dad estimates.
Mr McAteer was back further up the street sitting in a police car when another of his sons, Declan, came running over and screamed: "Dad, Joseph has fallen off the roof!"
He said: "I ran past the policewoman and she grabbed me and said 'you can’t go down there' and I said 'I can'.
"I bypassed her straight away, and ran down the street and a copper stood with his hands up and said 'you can’t come past me'.
"I went past him and round the corner I saw my son lying on the floor with a dozen people around him.
"Me and Declan just went to pieces. We went in the back of the ambulance and took him to hospital. I didn’t know if he was going to make it.
"The doctor couldn’t even give me a 50/50 [if he would live] when we got to the hospital, he was so bad."
Mr McAteer said surgeons have removed part of Joseph's skull to relieve pressure on his brain, but he doesn't know what the future holds.
"We don’t know if he’s going to be brain damaged. I’m Catholic, I pray every day," he added.
Joseph is thought to be receiving 60ml of methadone a day through tubes and his dad said he believes he was drug free for three weeks before his fall.
He had a flat in Preston city centre and would often collect a food parcel from a food kitchen on a Tuesday evening around where he fell from the former Fishergate Baptist Church, now a restaurant.
Mr McAteer believes his son had walked along a wall round the back of the bistro and up onto different ledges before reaching the roof.
Referring to his son's struggles with the job centre, Mr McAteer said: "They kept giving him job searches to fill in, in his journal. Being a drug addict, they can’t keep appointments.
"Drug addicts don’t know when 10 in the morning or 10 at night is, they can’t fill in job searches. It’s impossible. He’s sick, if you know what I mean."
Mr McAteer said Joseph had been struggling on and off for 20 years with addictions.
But his mental health had declined further after his mum died of breast cancer a couple of years ago.
A DWP spokesperson said: “We are sorry to hear of Mr McAteer’s accident and wish him well on his recovery.”
They added Joseph is in receipt of Universal Credit and all his payments are correct and up to date. He has not been sanctioned by the department.
A spokesperson for Lancashire Police confirmed at the time of the incident on August 16: "We have closed off an area of Fishergate, Preston, following a call regarding a concern for welfare.
"A man has climbed onto the roof of a building and is refusing to come down."
The Samaritans is available 24/7 if you need to talk. You can contact them for free by calling 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org or head to the website to find your nearest branch. You matter.
