Co Armagh man spat at a nurse in Craigavon Area Hospital
A man with 205 previous convictions shared ‘not a word of contrition’ after he spat at a nurse in Craigavon Hospital, a court has heard.
Stephen Philip Henderson, aged 43, from Dobbins Grove, Armagh, appeared before Craigavon Magistrates Court charged with common assault and disorderly behaviour.
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Henderson’s lawyer said her client pleaded guilty and had been in custody since he was arrested.
The court heard that on January 20 police were at Craigavon Hospital with the defendant who was receiving treatment.
“He remained highly aggressive and agitated throughout and was warned about his behaviour on a number of occasions,” a prosecutor said.
She said that whilst in the treatment room the defendant ‘shouted and swore’ at the nurse while she was trying to treat him. He was telling her to ‘fxxk off’ and ‘go fxxk yourself’.
"Police observed the nurse flinch backwards. She informed police the defendant spat on her," she said.
Henderson’s lawyer said his client instructs he didn’t attend Craigavon Hospital ‘of his own accord’. She explained that he had been at a house with his partner when a third party attended the residence. Henderson left and went to his own address ‘with the intention of going to bed’.
"That is when the police attended his court address on foot of a 999 call suggesting that Mr Henderson had informed the third party that he had threatened to take his own life,” said the lawyer, adding her clients disputes this.
It was on that allegation he was brought to hospital by police, said the lawyer. “He was held in hospital in handcuffs and taken through A&E of Craigavon.
"The body worn footage clearly shows that Mr Henderson has quite a lot of saliva in his mouth when he is talking. He does take himself to the ground and when he stands up he speaks to the nurse and saliva leaves his mouth. It is clear from the body worn that he is still talking when that happens.
"He did not intend or set out to intentionally spit on the nurse in an active assault,” she said, adding that he is heard on body worn footage telling the nurse not to be afraid of him.
She also told the court that Henderson had been in Bluestone Unit days before this incident, having just been released. She added that his son’s mother took her own life and Henderson is the boy’s only parental figure.
The lawyer told Deputy District Judge Gerard Trainor that Henderson has a suspended four months jail sentence handed down last September for disorderly behaviour.
"You come to the court with 205 previous convictions,” said the district judge. “The facts of this case show you did assault and you admit assaulting a nurse in the course of her duty and you were otherwise disorderly in the hospital. For none of these offences have you offered not a word of contrition.
He said there were “a lot of explanations about your health, reason you were there all etc but nothing about the position of the nurse who was trying to help but who was placed in fear”.
He sentenced Henderson to four months in prison plus he activated the suspended sentence to run concurrently.