An Oamaru man who went on an angry rampage at Oamaru Hospital in May will be sentenced for that incident and on other charges when he appears again in the Oamaru District Court on September 29.
Mark John Sheridan (29), unemployed, was admitted to the hospital's high dependency ward on May 12 after suffering from complications from diabetes.
He leapt from his bed, breaking an intravenous (IV) tube and spraying his highly infectious hepatitis C blood around his room.
He assaulted two staff with a drip pole and then walked through the hospital smashing items in his path, throwing a table through a window and terrifying a woman patient who ripped her own IV out and sought refuge in an en suite.
On Wednesday, before Judge Robert Spear, Sheridan admitted two charges of assaulting Robert Douglas MacDuff and Joy Margaret Hay using an IV pole as a weapon, and intentional damage of medical equipment, windows, cups, vases and other items owned by Waitaki District Health Services Ltd, with reckless disregard for others.
He was convicted and remanded to appear yesterday for sentence.
However, when he appeared yesterday, his counsel Ngaire Alexander said other charges, not related to the hospital incident, were still being determined by police. Sheridan had not yet entered a plea on some of those charges.
As a result, Judge Spear decided not to sentence Sheridan until other charges and pleas had been finalised, remanding him in custody to appear again in Oamaru on September 29, asking also for an updated pre-sentence report.
Sheridan faces charges of possession of an offensive weapon (a concrete block) in circumstances that showed an intention to use it and threatening to do grievous bodily harm to a police officer in Oamaru on August 24.
He also faces a charge of common assault which was alleged to have occurred in January.
• Other conviction
Steven Robert Murdoch (18), auto electrician, of Oamaru, operating a motor vehicle in a race on Severn St, December 6, fined $500, court costs $130, disqualified for six months.
