Woman jailed for spitting and flicking blood at Aberdeen hospital security guard
Aberdeen UK July 17 2018 An Aberdeen woman who flicked blood at a security guard who caught her lighting a cigarette in hospital has been jailed.
Catherine Quinn had attended accident and emergency at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary on December 23 with injuries to her arms, but became abusive when a security guard saw her trying to smoke – and flicked her blood at him.
Quinn, whose address was given in court papers as Regent Court, Aberdeen, pled guilty at Aberdeen Sheriff Court to assaulting the security guard, as well as to a domestic matter involving a former partner and spitting at a police officer.
Sheriff Colin Dunipace ordered Quinn to serve six months in prison.
Fiscal depute Karen Dow said: “At 5.15pm the complainer was on duty and noted the accused attempting to light a cigarette in the treatment bay she was in.
“On challenging the accused she started shouting and swearing at him and started spitting at him.”
Ms Dow added she started “flicking her arms at the complainer, directing the blood towards him”.
Defence agent Jennifer Pritchard said: “Ms Quinn is a woman who has serious difficulties in relation to her alcohol consumption.
“She recalls very little of any of these incidents due to her consumption of alcohol.
“She accepts herself this is something she has to deal with because she said to me if she doesn’t stop her drinking it’s going to kill her.”
Sheriff Dunipace said: “You have pled guilty to appalling crimes, in particular spitting. That can’t be tolerated.”
After the hearing a spokeswoman for NHS Grampian said: “Our staff work extremely hard day in and day out to do everything they can for our patients.
“Unfortunately, there are a minority of occasions where they are subjected to abuse, aggression or even violence from patients or visitors.
“While we understand that people are often going through stressful periods, that type of behaviour is never acceptable.
“People should be in no doubt that NHS Grampian will not tolerate abuse or violence against our staff and we take these incidents extremely seriously.”
