Teen yells racist abuse at doctor in A&E

A teenager yelled racist obscenities at a doctor in A&E after spending about three days in the department waiting for an operation.

Jake French had been working as a tree surgeon when one of his fingers was crushed in an accident in July last year.

The 18-year-old went to the A&E department at Leicester Royal Infirmary where he repeatedly yelled at his doctor, on one occasion shouting “******* foreign ****” at him.

He appeared at Leicester Magistrates’ Court yesterday, where he pleaded guilty to using racially-aggravated threatening behaviour.

Prosecutor Sara Ashkboos told the court: “It was approximately 4.30pm on July 14 last year at Leicester Royal Infirmary that this happened.

“The complainant was a doctor on duty in the fracture clinic.

“He was seeing the defendant who had a crush injury to his finger.

“This was taking place in a bay with curtains around it.

“The defendant was shouting, swearing at the complainant and his demeanour towards the doctor was generally aggressive.

“This shouting and swearing was loud enough to be heard by other patients and staff.”

She said that later on, French passed the same doctor in a corridor and yelled the racist comment at him.

Retesh Veja, representing French, said his client had no previous convictions and was on a lot of medication at the time of the incident and stressed his operation had been cancelled numerous times.

He said: “Mr French is very sorry for his actions and showed clear remorse to me both today and at the police station.

“He assists a tree surgeon and his finger was quite badly damaged. He ended up being at A&E over three days.

“He was on medication and confused. It’s fair to say things weren’t running as smoothly as they may have liked.

“His operation kept being put back and he was under a high level of stress.”

He said his client, who lives with his parents in Ordnance Way, Marchwood, Hampshire, and earns £50 a week by working one day a week with the tree surgeon, had no recollection of the incident because of the medication but was willing to accept the doctor’s version of events.

French was fined £120 and ordered to pay £75 compensation to the doctor, as well as £85 court costs and a £30 victim surcharge.

A spokesperson for Leicester’s hospitals, said: “We do not tolerate any form of abuse towards our staff. We take all reports of abuse very seriously, and encourage our staff to report them.

“We understand that visiting a very busy emergency department can be a stressful time for patients, but our staff are here to help so abuse of any kind is not acceptable.”