A thwarted escape which saw a pursuit through Wagga Base Hospital's corridors has landed a man in jail.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Marcus Collins, 28, appeared at Wagga Local Court for sentencing on Wednesday after pleading guilty to multiple offences, including attempting to escape from lawful custody.
The offences date back to July 1 when he was at Wagga Base Hospital under the guard of two correctional officers. When they told Collins he would need to be handcuffed, he said: "I don't think you can chief, I've got cannulas in both arms."
While waiting for a doctor to review him, one stood guard at the door and the other in the hallway.
Collins approached one holding out the cannula and said: "do you want Hep C you dog?"
The officer stepped back to distance himself, and Collins escaped through the door. One guard chased after him while the second took another direction to try and cut him off.
When he ended up in a dead-end, Collins again held out the cannula towards an officer who raised his hand to protect his face. Collins punched him multiple times before running away again.
The same guard caught up and tackled him from behind, and during the wrestle the officer's shoulder was dislocated.
IN OTHER NEWS:
The other guard arrived to help, and Collins said: "do you want Hep C you f---king dogs?"
They managed to subdue him, and a nurse sedated him. In handing down his sentence, Magistrate Christopher Halburd said Collins' record did not entitle him to any leniency.
"He was on remand at the time ... [and] he endeavoured to escape from Wagga Base Hospital where he had been taken for treatment," he said.
"The officers understandably were fearful for their safety. One of the officers has experienced nightmares since the incident."
Magistrate Halburd said his initial inclination was that Collins would be spending years in jail.
But he accepted a finding of special circumstances, including that Collins was suffering from paranoia due to being awake for days and was not allowed to see his mum.
"At this point he understood he was being held against his will," Magistrate Halburd said.
"There's no evidence of that before the court other than the submission before the bar table.
"Balance of probability is that was his understanding. It's cold comfort to those officers of course who were injured and traumatised that the defendant may have been operating under some sort of delusion."
Collins was sentenced to 22 months in jail, backdated from July and will be eligible for parole from July 1.
Magistrate Halburd directly addressed Collins and pleaded with him to accept the supervision and turn his life around.