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Singapore

Patient who wanted to smoke behaved aggressively when stopped by hospital staff, gets jail

SINGAPORE: A man who wanted to leave his hospital ward to smoke grew agitated when stopped by hospital staff and later attacked a security officer and a auxiliary police officer.

For his actions, 58-year-old Tahir Ismail was sentenced on Monday (Oct 7) to one month and two weeks' jail.

The court heard that Tahir was taken by paramedics to the Accident & Emergency (A&E) ward at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) on Aug 25 (2019) after being found drunk in public.

At about 7.20pm that day, he woke up and wanted to leave the ward to smoke, said Deputy Public Prosecutor James Chew.

Nurses stopped him from leaving the ward, but Tahir grew agitated and began shouting continuously.

He walked to the exit and kicked at a glass door, while continuing to shout.

An A&E doctor intervened and asked Tahir to return to his bed, but he refused and behaved aggressively towards the doctor, shouting and swearing loudly.

A security officer at the hospital and an AETOS auxiliary police officer were called to the scene, where they tried to calm Tahir down to no avail.

He left the ward and went to smoke, with the officers on his tail.

He walked back outside the main consultation ward at the A&E and continued to shout, with the officers trying to get him to calm down.

Tahir then hit the security officer thrice on his chest with his hand, causing the officer to feel pain.

The auxiliary police officer intervened and warned Tahir to comply with instructions.

In response, Tahir went into a fighting stance and bounced on his feet, challenging the officer to a fight before pushing him on his chest.

He was later restrained by the officers and the police were called in.

Tahir pleaded guilty to three charges of behaving in a disorderly manner in a public place, voluntarily causing hurt and using threatening behaviour towards a public service worker. Another two charges were taken into consideration.

The court heard that he had multiple previous convictions from the 1970s, ranging from theft to affray.

The prosecution said Tahir, who was unrepresented, had created a scene and committed offences at a public hospital against public service workers.

Tahir told the court through an interpreter that he was drunk at the time and will not commit these offences again.

Source: CNA/ll(hm)

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