‘intolerable’ | 

Man who spat in paramedic’s face and attacked hospital porters on Christmas Eve is jailed

Jailing Martin McStravick, District Judge Bernie Kelly warned that any abuse or assault of hospital staff “is intolerable”

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A Lurgan man who spat in a paramedic’s face and assaulted two hospital porters on Christmas Eve was jailed for three months today.

Jailing Martin McStravick, District Judge Bernie Kelly warned that any abuse or assault of hospital staff “is intolerable.”

“The idea that people believe it’s ok to go to hospital and to assault medical staff, whether they be paramedics or ambulance or whatever other role they play is intolerable,” said the Craigavon Magistrates Court judge.

She also warned that “this court has to send out a message that if you engage in this behaviour there will be only one outcome. I will not tolerate any form of misbehaviour in hospital, in its grounds or towards any member of staff.”

McStravick, from Sloanhill Court in Lurgan, had entered guilty pleas to two counts of common assault and one of assaulting an ambulance worker arising from events on Christmas Eve last year.

A prosecutor told the court how an ambulance was called for when McStravick was found “lying on the ground outside a pub on Edward Street and clearly, he had a cut to his head.”

He told paramedics he had been assaulted and they took him to Craigavon Area Hospital but while he was waiting to be triaged, he “became unruly” and marched back into the ambulance where he “spat in the face of ambulance staff who had treated him.”

“Staff tried to get him to calm down so he could be treated or he wills have to leave…but he dropped a bottle of buckfast and it smashed on the ground,” the prosecutor told the court adding that he “stepped into the face” of one hospital porter and had kicked a second porter during the incident.

Initially, staff declined to treat McStravick and he left but when his condition deteriorated, police took him back and he was treated in the end.

During police interviews he claimed he couldn’t remember the incident and denied being “hostile or aggressive” or assaulting anyone but defence counsel Conor Lunny said there were guilty pleas after McStravick watched CCTV footage of what happened.

“Clearly the most serious offence is the spitting in the ambulance workers face and for what it’s worth, that’s the one he is most ashamed of,” said the barrister conceding that McStravick “knows he is at risk of custody.”

While he suggested that McStravick could be put on probation, DJ Kelly said it was her view “that there’s only one penalty I can impose” and that was the three month jail sentence.