A HOSPITAL A&E patient who medics feared had taken a potentially fatal overdose repeatedly threatened to jump from a Carlisle bridge unless police provided her with a free taxi-ride home.

The actions of 44-year-old Deborah Dixon occupied emergency crews for more than nine hours and involved nearly 20 emergency service professionals, the city’s crown court heard.

But a judge spared the defendant from a jail term after hearing that she was a “tragic figure” who on the day of her offending had suffered a fresh trauma and genuinely intended to end her life.

Dixon, of Carleton Road, Penrith, had earlier pleaded guilty to casing a nuisance at The Cumberland Infirmary’s A&E Department.

Gerard Rogerson, prosecuting, said police were summoned to the city's hospital at 6pm on January 15 by staff who were concerned that Dixon was attempting to leave – despite A&E staff fearing she had overdosed.

“A police constable found her in a treatment room and she was argumentative,” said Mr Rogerson. Dixon said that the hospital staff were "useless" and claimed they spoke to her disrespectfully.

She eventually calmed down.

At 10pm, hospital staff called police again to say that Dixon had left, saying she was going to throw herself off Carlisle’s Millennium Bridge, which crosses Castle Way near the city centre.

Police found her there a short time later. “She said she was going to jump off unless she was given a free taxi ride home,” said Mr Rogerson. She was handcuffed and taken back to A&E.

Once there, she told staff she had to buy tobacco – but instead returned to the same bridge. Police were alerted by worried bystanders, saying she was threatening to jump. She was standing on the bridge's outside railing, looking exhausted.

This happened at 1am.

As a result of her threat, the road had to be closed as emergency crews went to the scene. “She was adamant that she would remain there because she wanted a free taxi ride home,” continued Mr Rogerson.

“After 90 minutes of negotiation, she came down from the bridge and was subsequently arrested.” The prosecutor then outlined the emergency response, saying it involved four police constables, a trained negotiator; a police sergeant; ten fire fighters and an ambulance crew.

The cost to the Fire Service alone was put at £1,824 while in total Dixon took up nine hours and 10 minutes of emergency crew time.

Outlining her offending history, Mr Rogerson said Dixon was at the time under a nine month suspended jail sentence for assaulting several police officers at a psychiatric unit of Whitehaven’s West Cumberland Hospital.

She had tried to bite an officer, and to gouge another’s eyes and also spat at police constables and kicked one in the stomach.

“She’s a tragic figure,”  said Andrew Gurney, defending, outlining how Dixon had suffered “horrendous physical abuse” during a previous relationship.

On the day she was on the bridge, she discovered that her former partner had been moved to the same "secure" accommodation complex where she was living and he tried to break into her home.

Mr Gurney said: “It caused her mental health to spiral quite significantly. She intended to end her life that day. She felt she'd been let down and that she would always be under threat and in danger.

“She was just desperate to end her life.”

But the defendant, who suffered post-traumatic stress, was now more stable and benefitting from more community mental health support.

Recorder Paul Hodgkinson said Dixon’s actions put extra pressure on an NHS which was already suffering “unprecedented pressure” because of the pandemic; and she had also tied up emergency services and caused inconvenience.

The judge said he recognised the difficulties Dixon faced but she could have no complaint were she to be jailed. “But there is only so much patience that the court can have in respect of your predicament,” said Recorder Holdgkinson.

He imposed a 12-month community order, with 40 days of rehabilitation activity. For her breach of the suspended sentence order, he imposed a £1 fine with seven days custody in default should she fail to pay.

The Recorder added: “I warn you that patience does run thin eventually and there may be a point where this court has no alternative other than to send you to prison.”