A SCHIZOPHRENIC patient who broke a doctor’s nose and a patient’s jaw in separate attacks in two psychiatric units will only be free when the Ministry of Justice decides he is no longer a danger to the public.
Michael Cahill, prosecuting, told York Crown Court that the doctor went to check Craig Dear and take his blood pressure when the 41-year-old was being held in seclusion at Newton Lodge medium secure unit, near Wakefield, on February 17, 2013.
Initially Dear appeared calm, but then he punched the doctor so hard he broke his nose so badly that it will be permanently crooked.
He was moved to Stockton Hall medium secure hospital at Stockton-on-the-Forest, York.
He assaulted two members of staff there. One of his victims, a health care worker, was hit several times in the face.
On June 17, 2013, in a hospital kitchen, Dear punched another patient and broke his jaw.
After reading two psychiatrists’ reports and hearing evidence from one of them, Dr John Kent, the Recorder of York, Judge Stephen Ashurst, detained Dear indefinitely under the Mental Health Act and made a restriction order forbidding doctors to release him unless the Ministry of Justice agrees.
Dear suffers from schizophrenia, the court heard.
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