A PARAMEDIC was assaulted in the back of his ambulance as he, and a colleague, transported an assault victim to Royal Blackburn Hospital.

Blackburn magistrates heard drunken Matthew Robert Braithwaite then urinated in the back of the ambulance, forcing it to be taken off the road until spec- ialist cleaners could deep cleanse it.

Braithwaite, 32, of Cotton Street, Padiham, pleaded guilty to assault, criminal damage, and possession of cannabis.

He was remanded on bail for the preparation of a pre-sentence report.

Catherine Allan, prosecuting, said the ambulance was called to the Dog Inn, Clitheroe, where they found Braithwaite with a head injury following an assault.

He was put in the back of the ambulance for the journey to hospital, but became abusive and threat-ening.

At one point, he grabbed the paramedic who was treating him, by the hand and squeezed hard.

When he lashed out, the paramedic told his friend to stop the ambulance near the Dunkenhalgh Hotel, in Clayton-le-Moors, and the police were called.

After the officer arrived, Braithwaite urinated in the back of the ambulance.

“The ambulance was taken off the road until it could be cleaned, increasing risk to the general public,” said Miss Allan.

“The assault was on a public servant who was only trying to help the defendant.”

Phillip Turner, defending, said his client’s memory of the incident was impaired by either the head injury, the drink, or both, but he had accepted without reservation the paramedic’s vers-ion of events, and apologised for his behaviour.

“He works as a refuse collector in the Ribble Valley and, as a public-facing employee, appreciates the difficult job the ambulance crew have,” said Mr Turner.

“Had he not been the totally innocent victim of an assault himself, he would not have been in the ambulance in the first place.”