YORK fetishist Norman Hutchins was today jailed for three years and given an order which could ban him from NHS establishments for the rest of his life.

Hutchins was given a criminal antisocial behaviour order which bans him from entering or contacting any medical or dental establishment anywhere in England or Wales, except under special arrangements for genuine illness.

Judge Paul Hoffman said there was provision to review the order after two years, but he fully expected it to continue indefinitely.

The judge said that if he breached the order he would be imprisoned.

Leeds Crown Court heard the 53-year-old Clifton man pestered a nurse repeatedly throughout an entire day to try and ensure she would send him surgical equipment.

Rosamund Julie, of St Hughes Hospital, Grimsby, had to put the phone down on him and became increasingly worried by his phone calls, which continued the next day, said John Boumphrey, prosecuting.

But his strange activities ended when she called in police and he was arrested in York.

Police searched his home and found a large quantity of surgical equipment, including hypodermic needles.

Mr Boumphrey outlined calls that Hutchins had made to dentists and health establishments in London, Nottingham, Sunderland and Dundee, which had netted him 127 surgical masks.

Hutchins claimed to be raising money on behalf of a very ill child by doing charity runs wearing tie-on surgical masks, or that he needed the masks for amateur plays.

Mr Boumphrey also described how employees at York Hospital had twice in one evening had to call in security staff to deal with Hutchins, who was making a nuisance of himself in its accident and emergency department.

On the second occasion, in the early hours of January 29 last year Hutchins threatened security officer Anthony Webster with a 12in knife which had a 6in blade.

The next night, police caught Hutchins in George Hudson Street with a dinner knife.

Hutchins, of Rowntree Avenue, has pleaded guilty to a public order offence, five charges of deception, one of attempted deception and one of carrying a bladed article, the dinner knife, in public.

He committed them despite an earlier High Court injunction which banned him from entering or contacting certain named hospitals and dental establishments.

After hearing that his deception and other ploys to get surgical equipment had begun in 1984 and had led to him being put behind bars several times in the past, Judge Hoffman called him a serial offender.

Hutchins' barrister, Simon Kealey, said that it was perfectly legal for people to have surgical masks, but Hutchins had broken the law because he had lied about his reasons for having them.

He saidd that the crimes did not reflect the "wider concern about him".

He said that apart from one case the telephone calls had not harmed anyone, and Hutchins' offending had lessened in recent years.

Updated: 12:52 Thursday, January 20, 2005