Thug jailed for blocking path of ambulance carrying dying pensioner

Michael Boyd, 22, stood directly in front of the ambulance to prevent it making its journey to hospital.

Inside, a paramedic was treating Norman Bell, 84, who had collapsed from a massive heart attach as he played bowls at St Oswald Catholic Social Club in Ashton-in-Makerfield, Wigan, in July.

Mr Bell died the following day.

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Magistrates in Wigan were told today that Boyd, a father-of-one from Belvedere Road, Newton-Le-Willows, put his hand on the windscreen of the ambulance then began to swear at the driver and shouted threats that he would kill him.

The driver set off but Boyd continued to shout threats then began to bang on the side of the ambulance.

The court was told that Mr Bell was "seriously ill" inside.

Boyd pleaded guilty in November to a public order offence of conduct causing fear of unlawful violence.

Magistrates said today that the public needed to be protected from such "anti-social" action.

Jailing Boyd for four months, bench chairman Michael Baker said: "It was an attack on public servants who were dealing with a medical emergency.

The public need to be protected from this anti-social behaviour. The bench considers that this has past the custodial threshold."

The court was told that Boyd was "very, very intoxicated" but had show genuine remorse and sent his apologies to the paramedics involved.

There was no evidence to suggest that his actions contributed to Mr Bell's death, the court was told.

The whole incident, on a narrow dirt track near the social club, lasted around two minutes, the court was told.

But the driver said that, in four-and-a-half years of frontline emergency treatment, this was "the worst incident he had encountered".

Lucy Ashton, prosecuting, said the ambulance, which had its blue light flashing, was forced to stop because a motorbike was blocking its path on the dirt track.

The driver got out and moved it but Boyd, who was stood with a group of men nearby, jumped over a metal fence and blocked its path after the driver got back into the cab.