Jailed for verbal assault on doctor
A SHETLAND man who was on strong medication after being stabbed when he verbally assaulted a hospital consultant was jailed at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Thursday.
Appearing from custody, 29 year old Calum Jamieson, of 7a Pitt Lane, Lerwick, admitted assaulting, obstructing and hindering the consultant at Gilbert Bain Hospital on 19 January, in breach of legislation to protect emergency workers.
He also admitted twice breaching a night time curfew imposed after he was bailed on the original charge.
The court heard how Jamieson had spent several days in the Lerwick hospital after he had been stabbed on his own doorstep.
He had been given strong medication when he was discharged on 19 January, and claimed that he could not remember what had taken place next.
Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie said Jamieson had approached the consultant demanding more drugs, and when this was refused he lost his temper.
“In the midst of a busy hospital where other staff and patients were being exposed to this behaviour, he was shouting and swearing and threatening to tear the consultant’s ‘fucking nose off’,” Mackenzie said.
Defence agent Tommy Allan said Jamieson was on a high dose of morphine for the injuries he had sustained during a doorstep stabbing and he could remember little of what had happened.
He apologised on his client’s behalf, saying that he had been surprised when he had heard what he had done.
He said the breaches of curfew had been caused by Jamieson feeling trapped in his own home after the stabbing had brought back disturbing feelings from when he had been the victim of a serious assault as a young man.
“This has been a very difficult and traumatic time for Mr Jamieson,” Allan said, asking Sheriff Philip Mann to give him a chance to prove he could behave himself.
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However the sheriff said that during his short time on the bench in Lerwick, Jamieson had come across as someone who thought he could please himself and not comply with court orders.
Jailing him for a total of nine months, Sheriff Mann said of the doctor and his colleagues: “They are people who probably saved your life and to treat them in that manner was disgusting and reprehensible in the extreme.”
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