A man who threatened to blow himself up with homemade bombs stuffed a bin with glass bottles packed with shrapnel, a court heard.

However, police did not check up on Ian Hendrie for nine hours after the drug addict made the threat to his support worker during a meeting in Gravesend.

When they did arrive at 9pm the 55-year-old, of Coleridge Road, Dartford, told officers he had improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in his bedroom and wanted to kill himself.

He went on to say he wanted an armed police officer to shoot him and had planned to lure two enemies to the flat, injure them so they couldn’t leave and blow them up.

He then claimed he used to be in the French Foreign Legion, showed them doorbells which he said were triggers and told them he knew how to make petrol bombs packed with shrapnel.

Following a search of the property, on Friday, October 20, officers discovered a black bin containing six large glass bottles full of screws and nails.

The devices weren’t viable explosives but matched the description Hendrie had given to the two officers.

Hendrie was then taken to Darent Valley Hospital for a checkup where he lashed out at one PC, elbowing him in the groin.

After being taken into custody, he began self harming with a snapped plastic spoon and threw cups of urine and coffee at four officers who came to his aid.

He was charged with communicating false information about a bomb, five counts of assaulting police officers and criminal damage to a custody cell.

Hendrie admitted the charges at a previous hearing having twice failed to appear Maidstone Magistrates’ Court after refusing to leave his cell.

Sentencing was adjourned while a psychiatric report was carried out. It concluded he had no mental health issues.

Instead his solicitor Katherine Tuthill described his actions as a “cry for help” and urged magistrates to consider sentencing him at the lower court to avoid a more substantial jail sentence.

She said the police’s decision to wait nine hours before checking on Hendrie clearly showed they did not see him as a credible threat.

But chairman of the bench, Dave Mann, said: “The construction of these devices even if they were not viable suggests this went beyond a normal bomb hoax.

“Our sentencing powers [of up to a year in prison] will not be suitable.”

Hendrie, who has been in custody since the offences, was remanded to be sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court on a date yet to be decided.

A police spokesman said: “Officers were called at noon regarding a concern for the welfare of a man.

“Having assessed the report for harm, threat and risk, officers attended the address later the same day.

“The evidence gathered during this visit and subsequent inquiries helped to secure Ian Hendrie’s conviction for several offences of assaulting a constable and making a bomb hoax.”