A MAN whose aggressive and volatile behaviour at Maitland Hospital caused other patients to hide in the bathroom in fear for their safety has been jailed for three years.
Luke Benjamin Daly, 33, had come into hospital about 4.30pm on September 21, 2021, for medical treatment, suffering possible seizures.
He was moved from the triage area to within the hospital and became highly agitated throughout the evening, according to a police statement of facts tendered in Maitland Local Court on Wednesday.
He was behaving in a "highly volatile" manner towards medical personnel who were trying to help him and provide medical care, police said.
The unprovoked attacks caused "extreme fear" and alarm to members of the public, sick and injured people.
Police say Daly began swearing at hospital staff, throwing furniture around and yelling and causing other patients to hide in bathrooms, prompting hospital staff to call a 'code black' requiring security.
The hospital's nurse unit manager as well as the nursing unit manager of the hospital's Emergency Department attempted to intervene but Daly refused to leave saying he had nowhere to go.
He was physically restrained by hospital security staff and removed from the hospital grounds but came back and continued to intimidate and harass security staff who were monitoring his behaviour.
He then took a "fit pack" from a syringe dispensary machine near the hospital's front entrance, took out a syringe and put the syringe into his arm and filled it with blood saying "I have Hep C and I will f--- you up you c----", police said.
He then ran towards a security officer pointing the syringe at him. He later threw the syringe away and it was picked up but Daly repeatedly refused to leave the hospital grounds.
Police were called and Daly once again refused to leave, shaping up to a female officer who arrested him.
Once at Maitland Police station he told the custody manager he had COVID-19, having just received positive results from Maitland Hospital.
This fabrication caused the police station to enact the then current COVID-19 protocols. He did not have COVID. In an interview with police he denied all of the allegations and said he just wanted "to go back to jail".
Documents tendered in court described Daly as a heavy drug-user, known to police for violent behaviour, and with a history of drug and street-related offences, property offences and offences involving weapons.
He was sentenced in Maitland Local Court on charges including behave in offensive manner, three counts of being armed with intent to commit an indictable offence, four counts of intimidate, and one of resist arrest.
He was sentenced to a 12 month Community Corrections Order for behaving in an offensive manner, and three years for each count of being armed with intent to commit an indictable offence to be served concurrently, with a non-parole period of 22 months.
