A man who chased a nurse along a hospital corridor and assaulted another in a staff room was jailed on Monday.
A solicitor for Denis Blanking, of no fixed abode and who pleaded guilty to assaulting two nurses, told the Derry Magistrate’s Court that the offending was appalling.
The 26-year-old was jailed for four months following the incident at Altnagelvin Hospital’s accident and emergency ward on Friday night.
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A police officer told District Judge Barney McElholm that just before midnight on Friday Blanking arrived in the accident and emergency ward drunk and carrying a bottle of red wine.
He told the court: “The police received a call to attend the hospital following a report that the defendant had assaulted two of the nursing staff. The officers spoke to the deputy sister and staff nurse who told them the defendant had arrived in the hospital very drunk and he continued to drink from a bottle of red wine.
“They asked him to stop because they’d just given him some medication. They told him he was not allowed to consume alcohol on the hospital grounds. Initially he refused to hand over the bottle to the staff nurse but when he eventually did he walked after her down the corridor, grabbed her by the arm and twisted her arm.
“Out of fear she returned the bottle to him. He again drank from it and handed it over to the nurse but when she walked away with it again he ran down the corridor after her.
“She called to colleagues for help and she went into the staff room. A deputy sister was there and she took the bottle of wine but the defendant came into the staff room and pinned her against a counter to get at the bottle. When he was arrested he told the police he’d consumed a ten glass bottle of whiskey and cider as well as pregabalin.
“Several pregabalin tablets were found on him when he was searched. He told the police he’d brought the wine and tablets into the hospital but he said he didn’t remember assaulting anyone.”
Defence solicitor Seamus Quigley said it was an extremely serious case which would cause the court great concern.
“This defendant is aged in his mid twenties and he suffers from foetal alcohol syndrome and he never really has had a chance, but I accept he must take responsibility for his own actions including for actions as appalling as this. He remembers being in a bar and he remembers being told by people there that he was convulsing.
“He has no memory of how he got to hospital, he thinks possibly by ambulance, he has no memory of assaulting anyone but accepts what the nurses say.
“The nurse was giving him medication for alcohol withdrawal when she saw the bottle of wine. She told him he couldn’t consume alcohol because of the medication she was giving him. She asked him to stop drinking, he refused and then it all happened.”
The District Judge said if an appropriate centre existed in Northern Ireland to treat addicts such as the defendant in a closed setting, he would refer him to it but no such centre existed.
“This clearly crosses the custody threshold. This court will not tolerate assaults on hospital staff members and anyone who does that should know that is coming,” he said.
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