AN ANNOYED patient at the A&E Department of Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary thew a perfume bottle at a security guard.

Lisa Nugent, 33, committed the offence after staff ushered her into a room away from other patients to calm her down - but without any apparent success, the city’s Rickergate court heard.

The defendant admitted assaulting an emergency worker and two counts of causing criminal damage at the hospital  - one relating to the window which smashed when her perfume bottle hit it and another to a door she kicked.

Prosecutor George Shelley outlined the facts.

The three admitted offences related to events at the hospital’s A&E Department on May 22, when staff placed the defendant in a secure room to get her away from other patents.

“It was to assist in calming her down,” said Mr Shelley.

“While she was in there, she told [the security officer] that she was going to smash him up, causing him to fear violence.

“She then threw a bottle of perfume towards him. He dodged the bottle, but it hit a window in the room, smashing it.” The smashed window, made of toughened glass, had to be replaced.

During the same incident, said Mr Shelley, Nugent had kicked a door, though it was not clear from court papers whether that had to be replaced. The assault charge related to the security guard who was put in fear of violence. 

The court heard that Nugent, formerly of Silloth Street, Carlisle, had 30 previous offences on her criminal record but there were not recorded offences of violence.

Mark Shepherd, defending, told the court: “Miss Nugent is somebody who struggles significantly with her mental health and whilst she has, to some extent, an unenviable criminal record, it’s right to say that she has been the victim of extremely serious crimes.

“There was one in particular where a local man was sentenced to 15 years prison and he was released not so long ago and Miss Nugent should have been notified of that. She wasn’t.

“That had an impact on her mental health.”

The defendant had stopped taking her prescribed medication and moved on to taking street Valium instead. More positively, she was not working with various health professionals and there are efforts to get her new accommodation.

Mr Shepherd acknowledged that the victim of her assault had been an emergency worker who was trying to help her but he suggested that, given her offending history, the behaviour was “out of character.”

District Judge John Temperley asked for a background report to assist him in sentencing Nugent. He adjourned the case until July 2.