A man has been jailed for six months for spitting at a nurse at Arrowe Park Hospital.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said that David Newton, 50, of Manor Road in Liscard, assaulted the nurse by spitting at her in the Emergency Unit of Arrowe Park Hospital in the early hours of Thursday, April 2.

The staff nurse had just come back from her break at 1.15am and was asked to monitor the heart rate of a man calling himself Michael Collins who was in the waiting area of the unit.

She called that name and he came into the cubicle and appeared calm but the nurse could smell alcohol on him.

He sat on the trolley in the cubicle but kept moving around and it was impossible for her to attach the equipment needed to monitor his heart.

She told him to keep still but he kept moving and told her he was a heroin addict and he had taken heroin, amphetamine and crack cocaine and that he was depressed due to his drug taking.

The nurse eventually managed to complete the trace of his heart beat and took the machine out to clean it, closing the curtain behind her.

The man, who was in fact David Newton, started throwing himself around on the trolley. She asked him what he was doing , but he said “Nothing”.

She then heard him coughing and spitting and asked him to stop but he started kicking out and swearing at her. He jumped off the trolley and started to kick the chairs and bin in the unit and continued to cough and spit in the direction of the nurse.

The nurse and a colleague tried to talk him down but didn’t want to go too near as they didn’t have protective equipment and weren’t sure if he had an infectious disease, in particular, the Coronavirus.

The nurse’s manager eventually called security and the Police.

Mr Newton was taken out of the unit by the police but continued to kick out at security guards.

He was charged with assaulting an emergency worker, pleaded guilty at Wirral Magistrates’ Court today Friday, April 3 and was given an immediate jail term of 6 months and ordered to pay £300 in compensation.

Alan Currums, of CPS Mersey Cheshire said: “This sort of behaviour is totally unacceptable at any time, but in the current Coronavirus situation, it is even more dangerous.

“Mr Newton chose to lash out, cough and spit within close proximity of a key NHS worker, with no thought at all for the distress and possible health problems he was causing her.

“This nurse told police that she was worried enough about coming into work in the current pandemic, without being spat at. Newton also attacked security guards at the hospital and the police officers who arrested him.

“District Judge James Clarke has given this man an immediate jail term – so within hours of committing this offence, Newton is behind bars.

“Let this be a lesson to anyone who tries this sort of behaviour. It will never be tolerated but in the current Coronavirus outbreak it is deplorable.

"The Crown Prosecution Service is working hard with the police to bring these people to justice."