A hospital patient caused almost £50,000 worth of damage to a ward after he attempted to smoke while wearing an oxygen mask.
Lee Williams, 44, caused a massive fire at the University of Wales in Cardiff, leading to dozens of seriously ill people having to be evacuated as thick toxic smoke filled the hospital.
Prosecutor Andrew Kendall told Cardiff Crown Court that Williams was an inpatient at the hospital in May 2019.
During his treatment, Williams was given oxygen. He had been in the hospital for two weeks and was repeatedly found smoking by nurses.
The court heard that Williams told the nursing staff and doctors that he ‘did not care’ about their warnings. During one altercation he even spat on a nurse.
On 8th May, staff on the ward were alerted to the fact that a fire had started in William’s cubicle.
Williams was found to have a ‘blackened nose’ and injuries to his mouth and needed to be connected to a defibrillator and receive emergency treatment following the incident.
The court heard the extensive damage came to the value of nearly £50,000. Numerous medical staff also had to be treated for smoke inhalation.
As a result of William’s actions, the ward was forced to close for nearly three weeks, and 38 seriously ill patients had to be moved to other wards.
Williams – who has 25 convictions for a total of 68 previous offences – admitted assaulting an emergency worker and arson with intent to endanger life.
Judge David Wynn Morgan told Williams he smoked out of ‘selfishness’.
He said: “You were told in the clearest terms you could not smoke in the hospital.
“The dangers of fire were made clear to you. Your response was: ‘I don’t care, it is my decision to have a cigarette.’
“You put at risk the life of the doctor who rushed to treat you, the two nurses who helped, the security staff who put out the fire, and the 38 patients who had to be evacuated in the thick smoke.”
Williams – who was also sentenced for other charges relating to possession of an air rifle – was handed a five-year prison sentence.
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This guy already has 25 convictions for 68 offences. Given that successful convictions are around 2.5% or crimes committed, that is 40 crimes per conviction. Taking the 68 into consideration, this man has potentially committed 932 undetected or unconvicted crimes.
That he was using a naked flame anywhere near oxygen beggars belief. Everyone got off pretty lightly. Hot O2 cylinders make a serious mess if they blow.
We do not know what the convictions were for, but had he been subjected to a doubling of the preceding sentence upon each conviction, two things would have happened.
He would have been banged up in the first place so the problem would probably not have arisen.
He would never have got as far as 25 convictions. After the first half dozen or so, he would have faced decades inside, thus sparing the victims of his subsequent crimes.
Instead, he will be out in 30 months ready to cause mayhem all over again. Madness.
I think it is about time that medical staff were able or even required to refuse to treat troublesome patients including those there through alcohol abuse.
This man deserves nothing other than to be locked up.