A man who had to be restrained by four security guards at Orange Hospital after intimidating a nurse and threatening two paramedics started weeping when he was sentenced in court.
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Solicitor Taras MaKsymczuk said his 36-year-old client Scott Leslie Hurst-Thomas was suffering from abdominal pain and called for an ambulance to come to his home at Lucknow on the night of the offences.
Hurst-Thomas pleaded guilty to two counts of intimidation and one of affray and was on bail and present in Orange Local Court for sentencing on Wednesday, August 9.
Magistrate David Day said Hurst-Thomas appeared to be "self-serving" in comments he made to a community corrections worker during an interview about the offending.
"His explanation to the report [was] that he used aggressive behaviour as he perceived he wasn't receiving the appropriate medical treatment," he said.
"It's only about Mr Hurst-Thomas not the victims at large."
Mr Day said the victims were all members of the caring profession who were doing their jobs.
"Ambulance officers are considered vulnerable because of their occupation," Mr Day said.
"I consider the triage nurse to also fall into that category."
First threats made
According to court documents, two paramedics attended Hurst-Thomas's home about 1am on April 28, 2023 after he called for assistance for the stomach pain.
While they were questioning him about his condition and possible causes, he said, "I'm going to punch you in the face".
He became aggressive and verbally abusive towards the paramedics but when one of the paramedics said they would not tolerate his behaviour Hurst-Thomas calmed down.
However, he became aggressive and demanding again once in the ambulance on the way to Orange Hospital.
Triage nurse faces aggression
About 1.20am he arrived at the hospital where he was triaged by a female registered nurse.
He was demanding and verbally aggressive towards the hospital staff immediately on arrival and the nurse escorted him to the rapid assessment treatment room and showed him to a chair. Other patients were also being treated in the room.
Hurst-Thomas asked, "why am I on a chair? I want a bed," and when offered Panadol by tablet or fluids he got angrier.
Although he was told he'd have to wait for the current fluids running through his cannula to be completed before liquid Panadol could be administered, he elected to have the fluid by IV telling the nurse, "you're f---ing useless, tablets will make me sick".
About 2am Hurst-Thomas shouted at the nurse again saying "get me the pain killers or I'll come swinging" and she reminded him he had to wait for the current fluids to finish.
While waiting, Hurst-Thomas became increasingly aggressive towards the nurse calling her "incompetent," "useless," and a "motherf---er".
He also demanded she "tell me your f---ing name" and shifted across the seat towards her causing her to move back, worried for her safety.
Patients moved, security steps in
Unable to deal with Hurst-Thomas any further, the nurse handed over his treatment to another staff member and told police she felt threatened, intimidated and scared by Hurst-Thomas and his behaviour.
He became more aggressive after she left and punched the fluid machine knocking it off the stand and onto the floor.
He then grabbed the stand and picked it up but four security guards who were present told him to put it down and warned him that using it as a weapon would only make things worse for him.
Two other patients were in the room at the time of the incident and fearing for their safety, hospital staff moved them out of the room to another area.
Hurst-Thomas also stormed out of the room shouting, "where is she?" and security again intervened, restrained him and pushed him back into the room.
Police were contacted and when they arrived they saw Hurst-Thomas being verbally abusive and aggressive towards the security officers.
After speaking with victims and witnesses police arrested him and took him to Orange Police Station.
He refused to speak with a legal representative saying, "I'm in too much pain. Just f--k off".
Serious medical issues
Mr Maksymczuk said Hurst-Thomas has sought help for his abdominal pain over the last few years and handed up medical records about doctor visits to identify the problem.
He also said Hurst-Thomas wasn't able to keep his employment due to the pain.
"Mr Hurst-Thomas doesn't have any significant criminal history of violence," Mr Maksymczuk added.
"He is very remorseful, I've spoken to him a number of times, he's been crying too, he's quite sorry."
Mr Maksymczuk asked Mr Day to consider a supervised good-behaviour bond if he didn't find the custodial threshold to be crossed.
The sentence
Mr Day did find Hurst-Thomas's behaviour to have crossed the custodial threshold.
"What sort of message should the court send to the community, particularly members of the community who may be ambulance paramedics," he said.
However, he also said it was unlikely that Hurst-Thomas would conduct himself that way again.
He convicted Hurst-Thomas and gave him a 12-month full-time jail sentence with a nine-month non-parole order for the three offences.
He has lodged a severity appeal to be heard in the district court and has been granted conditional bail.
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