Addict given extra drugs by mistake bit hospital worker

AN ADDICT who thought it was her ‘lucky day’ after she was mistakenly given double her usual methadone prescription downed three bottles of wine before attacking hospital staff who tried to help when she collapsed.

Claire Clarkson, 35, assaulted two members of staff when she was taken to the Manchester Royal Infirmary in an ambulance after falling ill at a pharmacy.

Judge David Stockdale QC, the Honorary Recorder of Manchester, said attacks on hospital staff doing their jobs ‘cannot be taken lightly’ and jailed Clarkson for six months following the incident on the evening of October 28.

Manchester Crown Court heard Clarkson, from Altrincham, was at a pharmacy to pick up methadone, which she was prescribed after she stopped taking heroin.

Her barrister said she ‘saw it as her lucky day’ after she was mistakenly given double her usual prescription.

Clarkson returned the following day, having drunk three bottles of wine that morning, but was refused further methadone.

While at the pharmacy, she collapsed and was rushed to hospital in an ambulance.

When she arrived at the MRI she became ‘abusive and offensive,’ telling staff to ‘ **** off’ and trying to kick them.

A female member of staff put her hand on Clarkson’s shoulder and asked her to calm down, but she bit the woman on her hand.

She then spat at her and hit her arms. Clarkson continued to be offensive, calling staff ‘dirty ***** ’ and ‘dirty ******* ,’ the court was told. When a male member of staff intervened, Clarkson spat at him, narrowly missing his face.

He restrained her, but she continued to spit and struggle.

In a victim impact statement, the female member of staff, an ambulance capacity co-ordinator, said: “I come to work to help people. I definitely don’t expect to be assaulted when I do my job.”

Clarkson, who has a number of previous convictions including assaulting police officers, said she had little recollection of the incident.

Defending, Alison Mather said Clarkson was ‘shocked and stunned’ to hear she had bitten somebody. The judge accepted that Clarkson was in a state of ‘confusion’ at the hospital, after having taken the methadone then receiving further drugs to counteract the effect of the opiate.

Ms Mather said Clarkson needs help, and that prison is ‘not punishment’ for her any more, instead representing a ‘safe haven,’ having been estranged from her family and having no friends.

Judge Stockdale said Clarkson must go to prison, but said he kept the sentence lower so she can claim accommodation available to her. He said: “These are serious assaults, assaults on ambulance staff on duty at a busy hospital close to the city centre. Those members of staff were attending to patients who needed their help.”

Clarkson, of Oakleigh Court, Timperley, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and assault by beating.