Paramedic kicked as he treated Yarm patient (From Darlington and Stockton Times)

Paramedic kicked as he treated Yarm patient

8:00am Saturday 28th April 2012 in News By Gavin Engelbrecht

A PARAMEDIC jumped out of the back of his ambulance in fear for his safety after a drunken patient kicked him in the arm as he tried to treat him, a court heard yesterday.

Stuart Dack yelled at his driver to stop the ambulance after Lee Tyers attacked him, fearing he would be assaulted again.

When police officers arrived at the scene on the Teesside Industrial Estate in Thornaby, Tyers jogged away and was rugby tackled by PC Christopher Prudhoe – and injured his nose as he fell face down on the ground, magistrates were told.

The 39-year-old, who denied having drunk any alcohol, said he could not recall kicking Mr Dack. He said, if he had, he had done so involuntarily while in pain.

But following a three-hour trial, magistrates sitting in Peterlee, east Durham, convicted Tyers, of Mount Leven Road, Yarm, near Stockton, of common assault and breaching an anti-social behaviour order (asbo) by causing harassment alarm or distress in breach.

Mr Dack, a paramedic with the North-East Ambulance Service, said he had responded to a call when he found Tyers lying on the ground, at 5pm on September 27, last year.

Tyers got up and made his way to the ambulance, but looked drunk or under the influence of drugs, he added.

“He lay on the stretcher and complained of abdominal pain, but he refused to allow me to check him,” said Mr Dack. “I gave him gas and air and he took only three breaths before pulling the mask away.”

He said that Tyers then brought up his left foot and kicked him on the right upper arm and said to him: “You f*****g paedophile.”

PC Prudhoe said after he was arrested Tyers was verbally abusive and said: “I know where you live. I’ll pull your eyeballs out.”

Tyers told the court he recently had surgery and was taking prescribed morphine and painkillers. He said he was returning from moving his horses when he was overwhelmed by pain and a bystander had called an ambulance.

He said: “Why would I kick him (Mr Dack). He has done nothing to me. He was there to help me.”

Tyers had denied the charges. The case was adjourned to May 23 for sentence.