‘SUICIDAL’ patient is has been convicted of two attacks on ambulance staff after he lashed out while claiming to be 'possessed by the Devil', threatening to infect them with HIV.

James Pratt was unanimously convicted of two assaults on emergency workers by a jury at Worcester Crown Court on Thursday following the violent episode at Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester.

During the incident he also tried to strangle himself with stretcher seatbelts, guillotine himself with a bed rail and called the crew ‘gay bashers’ while claiming to be possessed by 'the Devil'.

The 54-year-old of Park Close, Malvern had denied the assaults against paramedic Nathan Walford and senior ambulance technician Tom Haunton on September 8, 2019. The jury was out one hour and 58 minutes. Sentence was adjourned until June 11 to allow time for a pre-sentence report to be prepared by the probation service. Pratt was granted unconditional bail in the meantime.

John Brotherton, prosecuting, said the two victims, part of a double-crewed ambulance team, attended Pratt’s Malvern home at around 12.28am after reports of a 'suicidal' male 'hyperventilating' because of a dispute with his neighbour over park. Pratt set off the hospital fire alarm while the crew had gone to 'get a brew' which meant the building had to be evacuated. Pratt was seen crawling across the ambulance bays before a doctor managed to administer a sedative in his buttock. When back in the ambulance he was described as becoming ‘combative’, once again throwing himself from the stretcher. "He was then attempting to spit out and bite the ambulance crew, saying 'I'm going to infect you with HIV'," said Mr Brotherton. During the struggle Pratt 'kneed Mr Haunton to the side of the head' and he also twisted his knee. In police interview Pratt said he had drunk three double vodkas, had been distressed over a parking dispute with his neighbour and had set off his own burglar alarm to disturb them. He told officers he activated the hospital fire alarm at because he felt 'claustrophobic'. Breaking down in tears, he told the jury he had been experiencing a mental health crisis.