A convicted sex offender has sparked fury over claims he threatened nurses while being treated at a busy hospital.
Complaints have been made over the prisoner making threats after being enraged over the choice of sandwiches at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
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The Record has been informed that he visits the hospital three times a week for vital medical procedures and is treated in a room with up to seven other patients.
Although he is chained up going in and out of the hospital he is not handcuffed at the treatment room. Now nurses and fellow patients have raised safety concerns after witnessing him threatening nurses.
One terrified patient said: “A nurse was recently told by the prisoner to expect a visit from a family member to ‘kick your **** in’ because his choice of sandwich filling had been unavailable from the tea trolley.
“No further action was taken - dismissed only as ‘oh yes, he does that now and then’.
“Anyone else would have rightly been prosecuted - there were plenty of witnesses.
The prisoner was convicted in 2018 is an inmate at Edinburgh’s Saughton Prison.
Although he is brought into Edinburgh Royal Infirmary in handcuffs and chains, when he is on the ward he is not restrained and able to move freely around the ward with two prison guards on duty at his bedside.
But concerned fellow patients were unaware of the nature of the prisoner's conviction and were shocked at his comments to a nurse.
One eye-witness said: “It may well be that he is well enough connected to have serious violence visited on others - nobody knows, certainly not the innocent members of the public forced to share treatment space and time with him and not even the NHS staff charged with treating him."
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One patient who has received treatment on the same ward said: “I really cannot fathom how someone who warrants handcuff and chains to be transported somewhere could possibly be allowed to spend time with members of the public.
“He should be isolated - he was not imprisoned to be given 18 hours liberty a week.
“There are 156 days a year where a convicted and serving prisoner spends six hours with in a room of ill and often vulnerable members of the public, with no notification, no consultation, no restrictions and no agreement.”
Witnesses told how he regularly raises spurious concerns about his prison escorts - accusing them of failing in their duty to protect him from any possible attacks.
The witness continued: “Of course when this happens, the guards are required to pay attention.
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