Man jailed after threatening staff member at Altnagelvin Hospital

 

A Derry man who was caught sleeping in a doctor’s common room at Altnagelvin Hospital has been jailed for 24 weeks after he threatened the member of staff who came across him.
45 year old Liam Bradley, of no fixed abode admitted one charge of common assault that occurred on August 12.
The court was told that at around 3 o’clock on the morning of August 12th, police were called to the hospital after reports of a member of staff being threatened.
The police were told that the staff member entered the common room and found Liam Bradley sleeping on a couch. When he was told that he was not supposed to be there, he threatened to ‘bash her head against a wall’.
Bradley left the common room when other staff members came along, but stopped a short distance away, drinking beer and smoking a cigarette.
Police arrived and he was arrested.
Defence barrister Ms Nicola Coulter said it would have been ‘a genuinely frightening incident’ for the staff member. She said Bradley had ‘a horrendous record’ but had managed to secure himself accommodation and was trying to turn his life around.
District Judge Barney McElholm said Bradley had 229 previous convictions including 27 assaults on police, 15 common assaults and three serious assaults.
He describing the threat to a member of medical staff in the hospital as a “scandalous offence”, and sentenced Bradley to 24 weeks in custody.