STREET: DRUNK ASSAULTED PARAMEDIC BEFORE TUMBLING OUT OF AMBULANCE

A drunken builder who attacked a student paramedic as she attempted to take him to hospital was today (Weds) spared jail.

Michael Street, 46, twisted Tamara Taylor’s wrist while she tended to him after he passed out at an Indian restaurant.

Street was in a ‘dreadful state’ after mixing painkillers and alcohol because of a toothace, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.

Ms Taylor and her colleague were called to the Tandoori Cottage, in Chingford Mount Road, Highams Park, Essex, on August 28 last year.

Prosecutor Paul Jackson told Snaresbrook Crown Court: ‘Upon arrival with a male colleague she took the unconscious male – this defendant– outside and were then attempting to put him on a bed as it was decided that he needed hospital care.

‘He then became conscious and grabbed Ms Taylor’s wrist and twisted it towards him.

‘She felt immediate pain and the defendant was allowed to get up and he subsequently fell out of the ambulance.

‘With the assistance of the police the defendant was taking to hospital and needed security guards to help to take him to the ward.’

Ms Taylor was off work for eight weeks having sustained what doctors initially thought was a fractured wrist.

It was later discovered she had only suffered a severe sprain.

Sentencing Street to 24 weeks behind bars, suspended for 12 months, Judge John Lafferty said: ‘On August 28, last year, you got yourself into a dreadful state through a combination of drink and medication that you should not have taken.

‘As a result you became unconscious and then the ambulance service turned up to assist you and you were a pest.

‘I accept that you did not intentionally injure Ms Taylor and I accept you were reckless and that recklessness was because you were so befuddled that you had no clear idea of what you were doing.

‘People who work for the ambulance service are providing a very important service to the community and are entitled that the courts should protect them from nuisances like you.

‘You are very fortunate that I am not sending you to prison today.’

Judge Lafferty ordered Street to complete 200 hours of unpaid work and comply with a three-month curfew between 9pm and 5am.

He was also told to contribute £800 towards the cost of the case and to pay £750 compensation to Ms Taylor.

Speaking after the hearing, London Ambulance Service operations manager Michael Pearce said: ‘This case demonstrates that assaults on our staff will not be tolerated.

‘Ambulance crews should be able to treat patients in the community without fear of attack.

‘On average more than one member of staff was assaulted every day in the capital last year.

‘This is wholly unacceptable and is all too often becoming a regular part of the job.’

Street, of (10) The Lawns, Chingford, Essex, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

He had originally been charged with causing grievous bodily harm, but the prosecution accepted his plea to the lesser charge at a hearing on June 22.

ENDS