AN ALCOHOLIC who repeatedly verbally abused hospital staff and paramedics has been given an Antisocial Behaviour Order (ASBO).

Raymond Clarke, of Medhurst Way, Littlemore, was given the Asbo at Oxford Magistrates’ Court on Monday.

It bans him from using abusive, insulting, threatening or sexually explicit language towards hospital staff or paramedics and also having an open container of alcohol at any Oxford hospital for two years.

Oxford City Council solicitor Jeremy Franklin said between February 19 and July 30 last year the 53-year-old started calling, and turning up at, local hospitals “almost on a daily basis”.

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He said: “Mr Clarke has a long and significant history of alcohol problems.

“This manifests itself in acts of antisocial behaviour towards medical staff, such as doctors and nurses from Oxford University NHS Trust and ambulance workers from South Central Ambulance Service.

“They are routinely called out and met with a barrage of abuse and swearing.”

Mr Franklin told magistrates that on a few occasions Clarke had been admitted to a hospital ward, only to quickly discharge himself.

Mr Franklin said: “This diverts medical treatment away from genuine emergency cases, and diverts ambulances from real emergency situations.”

He added: “The intent of this order is that he behaves in a civilised way towards those seeking to help him.”

Defence solicitor Scott Primmer said that his client was not setting out to be abusive or waste the time of the emergency services. He said: “It is not because he is drunk, it is because he has a chronic heart problem and a lesion on his lung, which leads him to think he is having a heart attack.”

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