A CARER broke down in tears as he denied assaulting two ambulance workers while feeling 'possessed', claiming one put his knee on his neck as he pleaded: "I can't breathe!"

James Pratt entered the witness box at Worcester Crown Court yesterday where he denied assaulting the emergency workers at Worcestershire Royal Hospital. The 54-year-old told a jury he had his eyes closed when he was said to have 'lashed out' at a senior ambulance technician and a paramedic while suffering a 'mental health crisis'. Pratt of Park Close, Malvern is accused of carrying out the attacks on September 8, 2019 after the crew had taken him by ambulance to Worcester hospital. Pratt said he had suffered a panic attack following a row with his neighbour's son over parking of his camper van.

Pratt is accused of kneeing the technician in the head and striking the paramedic in the chest while trying to bite them and spit at them, threatening to inflect them with HIV. Eventually Pratt said a doctor jabbed him in the buttock with a sedative. Pratt described himself as a care support worker who had carried on his work during the Covid-19 pandemic and also cared for elderly parents. He said: "I did feel suicidal. I did want to end my life that night."

He remembered putting the cord of his shorts around his neck but said a nurse cut it off with scissors before he tried to use his t-shirt and a bed sheet to do the same. "I put my head between the bars of the bedside and attempted to pull the knob so the bed would guillotine my neck," he added.

Pratt also tried to electrocute himself with a Belisha beacon in the car park but 'luckily I wasn't able to climb the post' before he headed towards the woods 'thinking I could hang myself'. Pratt, describing being restrained, said: "One of the paramedics, the bigger one, he put his knee across my neck. I was quite shocked that he had done this. I said 'you have got your knee on my neck and I can't breathe!' I remember the paramedic saying to me it's for my own good."

He added: "I did say - I remember my words clearly - 'you know that I have HIV. I could bite you if I wanted to but I wouldn't be so stupid."

John Brotherton, prosecuting, put it to Pratt that all these people, including paramedics, nurses and security had been trying to help him.

"I didn't feel as if they were" he said.

The trial continues.