The Buxton Advertiser
BUXTON, England — A drunken Buxton man ripped an ambulance stretcher apart with his teeth while being taken to hospital, a court heard.
Paramedics had been called to a flat in the town just after 9pm on July 1 after receiving reports of a man cutting himself with a knife, prosecutor Becky Mahon told High Peak Magistrates’ Court. Lee Whittaker was inside the flat clearly agitated and smelling of alcohol so the paramedics went outside and called for police assistance, Ms Mahon said.
Officers arrived and when Whittaker came out of the flat, he was immediately taken to the floor by the police and then put in the ambulance, face down on the stretcher.
“En route to the hospital, he bit out at the mattress on the stretcher and foam was bitten off,” Ms Mahon said.
“Once he was dealt with at hospital for his injuries, he was taken to police custody.”
He told police he couldn’t remember very much because he was upset and drunk, but he accepted he had caused the damage.
Whittaker, 35, of no fixed abode, admitted criminal damage to the stretcher which cost £337.81.
Representing himself in court, he apologised for his actions.
Chairman of the Bench Ian Hurst said: “The ambulance service are there to assist people within our community.
“Your actions on that night were not pleasant and presumably took that ambulance out of commission for some time.”
Whittaker was given a nine month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £337.81 compensation and £35 costs.
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