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Julien Behal/PA Archive
RTÉ

RTÉ presenter confronted with intruder while on air

John Creedon was broadcasting live from RTÉ’s Cork studio when a trespasser appeared and squared up to him.

RTÉ RADIO PRESENTER John Creedon has revealed how he was confronted by an intruder in his radio studio while he was live on air on the country’s most listened-to radio station.

Creedon – best known for being the winner of RTÉ’s reality series ‘Fáilte Towers’ – was broadcasting his regular nightly show from RTÉ’s Cork studios on Monday night when he looked through a pane of glass into the control room next-door to his own and saw an unfamiliar face which didn’t return a wave when he greeted him.

“When he didn’t wave back it aroused my suspicions straight away that his guy didn’t want me to see him,” Creedon told Today with Pat Kenny yesterday.

“So I just went out and said, ‘Hi, how are you doing, are you alright?’ And he – for want of a better word – he just squared up to me.”

Creedon said he was not fazed by the man squaring up to him, however, and told Kenny he said:

‘Listen,  you’re okay. You don’t deserve to be in any more trouble than what you are [already] in. Give me two minutes and I’ll sort it out for you.’ So he kind of relaxed at that.

Creedon had to interrupt his confrontation with the man – who had allegedly broken in through a second-floor window at RTÉ’s Cork studios – to change a record, replacing Ian Dury’s ‘Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick’ with ‘Reasons to be Cheerful’.

By the time he had replaced the song, the man had absconded – leading Creedon to wonder whether he should pursue the man through the building, though admitting he opted against bringing a microphone stand saying he couldn’t brandish such a weapon.

The 34-year-old man was later found by Gardaí hiding under a table elsewhere in the RTÉ building and was brought to Bridewell Garda Station.