POLICE investigations into assaults by patients at a York psychiatric hospital have soared, official figures revealed today.

The number of attacks reported to North Yorkshire Police by Stockton Hall Hospital rose over a five-year period from only three to 26.

Police said the assaults involved either patients attacking patients, or patients attacking staff.

But the hospital insisted today that there had been no increase in such incidents at the complex in Stockton-on-the-Forest, it was just that police were much more heavily involved in investigating them nowadays, rather than them being dealt with internally.

A spokesman said the hospital's own internal figures showed the level of assaults by patients was fairly consistent over the years.

He said staff and patients' eligibility for criminal injuries compensation could be affected by whether matters were reported to police.

Police said their involvement was also influenced by people seeking evidence in making civil compensation claims.

They stressed that some of the increase in reported incidents was due to changes in crime recording methods.

The statistics were released by police to campaigners fighting plans by the owners of Stockton Hall Hospital, Partnerships In Care, to build a similar hospital in Nidderdale, west of Harrogate.

Police said they came from the force's records relating to crime and general incidents requiring police involvement.

As well as assaults, the figures also revealed a smattering of other incidents, including a case of racial/religious harassment, and two reports of cannabis possession.

The Evening Press recently reported how a nurse at Stockton Hall was off work for seven months after being attacked by patients, angry because staff had refused to give them extra medicine.

York Crown Court heard that a patient hit nurse Samantha Doyle in the face and tried to bite her before spitting in her face, leaving her off work for seven months with shoulder, head, lip and teeth injuries.

Another staff member, Stephen Hopper, suffered a black eye, a bite mark and cuts to his arm after also being assaulted.

But assaults are not a new phenomenon at Stockton Hall. Its boss said as long ago as 1998 that mental health nurses were facing increasing violence from patients - possibly down partly to the growth of illicit drugs use.

Updated: 09:44 Tuesday, March 14, 2006