Rampton patient racially abused members of staff and spat in nurse’s face

A doctor was reviewing the 'bio-care' restraints that had been placed on patient Jacob Riley, after he self-harmed by rubbing paint in his eyes, on April 25, last year

Prosecutor Andrew Conboy said Riley, aged 35, began swearing and hurled a tirade of racist abuse before telling the doctor 'he was going to get him.'

On May 18, he threatened a female nurse and repeatedly shouted a racist word after blocking an observation window with a mattress on the seclusion ward.

And on August 22, last year, Riley spat into a male nurse's face who was delivering his medication and said: "I am going to knock him out and break his jaw."

His victim later gave a statement saying: "Although we are trained to use restraints, we are not trained to fight."

He said there were 'many assaults in hospital,' but staff were reluctant to complain 'due to the cases not being pursued by the authorities.'

Andrew Stewardson, mitigating, said Riley originally denied the charges but contacted the court on Monday on the week of a trial to offer guilty pleas and apologise to staff.

"He accepts he has very much crossed a line here," he said.

Mr Stewardson said Riley, who suffers from a severe personality disorder and post traumatic stress disorder, has spent all his adult life at Rampton.

"There's no end-point for Mr Riley being released from Rampton," he said, adding that his release will be decided by a tribunal.

He said the defendant is making ‘slow progress’ in a ‘high security setting.’

"There’s very little a court can do when a defendant is detained in the way he is,” Mr Stewardson added.

Riley admitted two counts of racially aggravated harassment and one of assaulting an emergency worker, when he appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court, via video-link, on Friday.

He was ordered to pay £150 compensation to each of his first and second victims and £200 to his third, and this will be deducted from his weekly Employment Support Allowance payments of £117.