A man who held a council receptionist hostage at knifepoint inside her car at a hospital after kidnapping her from her desk has been jailed by a judge who called him a danger to society.
The Royal Oldham Hospital's A&E department was placed on full 'lockdown' in August last year as Daniel Buckley, 32, told a hospital sister who walked over: "You need armed police." A court heard there was a 20-minute 'stand-off' with firearms officers before Buckley, who was carrying a meat cleaver and a knife, eventually surrendered and was arrested.
The council worker, a mother Buckley kidnapped from the reception of Oldham Civic Centre around 45 minutes earlier and forced to drive them in her car, managed to get out at the hospital and raise the alarm. She was praised by a judge for keeping him calm during what he called a 'prolonged and frightening incident'.
Buckley, who had been discharged from a mental health hospital two days earlier, walked into the Oldham Council building and put the blades down on the reception desk, together with a letter, before he forced the woman to get her car keys, walk outside to the car park and drive.
In a victim impact statement read out at Minshull Street Crown Court, she said she still suffers panic attacks. "The whole situation still feels very surreal," she said. "I just keep thinking 'what if I had not managed to keep him calm'?"
She said she hasn't been able to drive since and added: "I just keep thinking 'what if there had been a different outcome'? I was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time." Jayne Dagnell, prosecuting, said Buckley told the woman: "If you are my hostage, there is nothing you can do."
"She felt her only option was to go with him to protect others. She said she felt he was on the verge of flipping," added the prosecutor. "He started to get frustrated and she tried to keep him calm. As they reached Oldham College, he said she should take him to a hospital. She felt numb at that moment. She tried to keep him calm and just wanted the incident to end."
The court heard the woman, who calmed Buckley by talking about her family, managed to get out of the car when they arrived at the hospital and told a paramedic.
Buckley, of Wilson Way in Oldham, told a security guard 'move away or I will run you over', judge Recorder Andrew Nuttall was told, and the sister who walked over to the car described him as 'psychotic and erratic' before a road block was set up and police raced to the scene on August 30.
Around an hour earlier, the court heard Buckley walked into the home of a friend - a mother-of-three whose children were inside - armed with a bread knife and a meat clever as she sat watching television in the living room. The court heard he broke down in tears on the floor, said he needed help and referenced a hospital letter he described as 'a code'. Buckley also said he only 'trusted' women and girls.
He left but returned then locked the front door and followed the woman, now 'frightened and anxious', upstairs. Ms Dagnell said: "He said that everyone was trying to kill him. He pushed her head into a door. She was screaming and he was still holding both knives in his hand. She thought he was going to kill her."
The court heard Buckley held one of the knives against her throat, which she 'felt', before he ran away and went to the Civic Centre, where he kidnapped the receptionist.
In her victim impact statement, the mother-of-three said: "This incident has changed my life. He was a friend and was always welcome. That was all destroyed in the space of half an hour.. I understand he wanted help. I believe he was in the middle of a mental health crisis.
"But he made me feel like I was going to die. It has affected every single part of my life."
Buckley pleaded guilty to assault by beating, threaten another with bladed article, kidnapping and two charges of possessing a bladed article in a public place. Recorder Nuttall sentenced him to a 10-year extended sentence, comprising six years in prison and a further four years on licence. He will serve two-thirds of the prison sentence before being eligible for parole and a 12-year restraining order was also passed.
The judge said Buckley was seen by two different police officers earlier that morning - two days after his discharge - but 'neither thought it necessary to take further action'.
He said the council receptionist 'did not really have a choice' but to go with him and told Buckley: "You can only admire her courage and seeming calmness in dealing with you in what must have been a terrifying incident. She was, in every sense of the word, your hostage. She must have feared the worst throughout that time. The effect on both victims has been catastrophic.
"You represent a continuing danger to the public of serious harm and a sentence must be required for public protection. I consider you dangerous. That is my finding." The court heard a psychiatrist said he was suffering from a 'non organic psychotic disorder' at the time, but a hospital order was said not to be 'warranted'.
Kay Driver, defending Buckley, said he had misused drugs and alcohol and was on prescribed medication. She said the offences were triggered by a 'collapse of his mental health and misuse of prescribed drugs', adding: "He has shown genuine shame and remorse and wishes to apologise to all for his actions. He wishes it to be known that this was out of character.
"It was impulsive, not-planned and developed during the day as his mental health deteriorated. He is now on stable medication. He has said that he will never touch drugs and alcohol again."
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