A MAN who made a hoax bomb threat against a hospital that had saved his life on 19 occasions was jailed for more than two years yesterday.
Gareth Benbow’s grudge against Raigmore Hospital in Inverness led to the evacuation of children and cancer patients, including one who had only hours to live.
A surgical operation was halted with the patient already under anaesthetic and one person on 24-hour kidney dialysis was among eight critically ill patients who had to be moved from the intensive care ward after Benbow made his threatening call.
Visiting relatives and medics also fled the building after being told there was going to be an explosion.
The hospital was placed in lockdown as an armed-response police unit arrived and a large section of the building was evacuated.
A jury at Inverness Sheriff Court took less than 40 minutes last month to unanimously convict Benbow, 34, of making the malicious call on August 24 last year after medics would not give him morphine on an intravenous drip at his home to provide pain relief for a knee problem.
Benbow was also found guilty of a string of charges alleging he had been threatening and verbally abusive towards staff over the previous eight months.
Sheriff Margaret Neilson jailed Benbow for two years and five months and described his “abusive and threatening rants in the presence of very sick and dying patients” as “reprehensible and shocking”.
Criticising his lack of remorse, she added: “The staff in the intensive care unit had saved your life on 19 occasions after your numerous overdoses.
“You have a misguided view that you have not been treated appropriately by doctors in the past and appear to be pursuing some kind of vendetta against Raigmore Hospital and those who work there.”
Solicitor Duncan Henderson told the sheriff earlier that his client still denied making the hoax call.
He added: “It is fortunate that hospital staff were able to move patients and return them in an hour. Only one operation was affected.”
Sheriff Neilson responded: “Your solicitor attempted to suggest in mitigation that the unit was only emptied for one hour. That is in no way mitigatory.
“It is simply a tribute to the skill and efficiency of the staff at Raigmore and the police and emergency services that they managed to evacuate the intensive care unit, the oncology ward and the children’s ward, search the premises and return patients to their original wards in the space of an hour.
“There was clear evidence that one patient who had to be evacuated was in the last hours of their life. Your conduct will have made those last few hours significantly worse for that patient and their family.”
Benbow, of Gilbert Street, Inverness, had been admitted to the intensive care unit 19 times between January and August last year.
During the trial, consultant anaesthetist Dr Alexander Hunter told the court that he and other staff members had been threatened and felt intimidated by Benbow, who had deliberately and repeatedly overdosed on drugs including morphine prescribed for knee pain.
Dr Hunter said Benbow would be comatose when he was admitted after his overdose and he required ventilation to help him breathe. When he came round, he became abusive.
Senior staff nurse Mary-Helen Hendry, 57, took the “bomb” call about 4.15pm and said she recognised Benbow’s West Country accent immediately.
Raigmore’s interim operations director, Linda Kirkland, said later: “I have nothing but praise for the professionalism of the staff here at Raigmore and for how they acted.
“It is unacceptable for our staff to be treated in this way as they go about their duties and I am pleased that the court has taken this so seriously.”