A terminally ill man who held a loaded gun to his head outside Royal Liverpool hospital was today spared jail.
Donald Coleman sparked a 12-hour police standoff when he dialled 999 and said he wanted to kill himself with a Russian semi-automatic pistol. Armed officers descended on Prescot Street on November 3 last year.
The front entrance of the Royal was closed, the road shut down and ambulances diverted to other hospitals during "severe disruption". However, Judge Garrett Byrne today said: "This is a wholly exceptional and tragic case, and in my view, justice must be tempered by mercy."
