A PSYCHIATRIC patient from west Cumbria with a long history of violence tried to slash a doctor's throat with a fragment of sharp plastic. 

Workington woman Annie Bethwaite, 43, will now be detained indefinitely in a secure psychiatric unit after experts – including a doctor she tried to strangle - concluded that she poses a continuing risk to the public.

The strict order was made after a Carlisle Crown Court judge heard that she had repeatedly attacked medical staff, often using weapons, such as scissors, shards of glass, or broken crockery.

Bethwaite, formerly of Belle Isle Street, Workington, admitted a series of assaults at West Cumberland Hospital. She was admitted to the hospital on January 28 last year because she had suicidal intentions and reported taking an overdose.

After arriving at hospital, her behaviour was erratic and included her storming out of the A&E Department. A doctor, on his way to work, saw her and expressed his concern but she became “very aggressive,” growling at him.

A short time later, an A&E nurse arrived, and the defendant began shouting at her, lashing out with her arms aggressively. She began grabbing at the doctor’s neck.

When the nurse tried to intervene, Bethwaite struck her several times, said prosecutor Tim Evans.

In the early hours of the following morning, when another doctor approached the defendant because of concerns that she may be self-harming, she swung at him with a piece of sharp plastic, shouting: “I’ll cut your throat.”

The doctor’s arm was cut as he raised it to protect his throat.

An Army trained medic, the doctor was able to grab Bethwaite and restrain her until she calmed down. Several nurses became involved in restraining her. “The staff were struggling to get the shard out of her grip,” continued Mr Evans.

“She was struggling and kicking out and screaming.” As he passed sentence, Judge Michael Fanning noted that Bethwaite had no previous convictions.

But she had been known to the police and the psychiatric services since 2009, and because of her violent behaviour she had spent most of her life since then in psychiatric facilities.

Her repeated assaults, said the judge, had left staff with fractures, and had included attempted strangulation with both her hands and ligatures.

She had also used weapons, including scissors, shards of glass, and broken crockery. “She has repeatedly threatened to stab others,” continued the judge.

The events of January 28 last year provided only a “snapshot” of how Bethwaite generally conducted herself and the violence she has exhibited since 2009. There was no evidence drugs or alcohol were involved but her behaviour was unpredictable.

One doctor initially assessed her as as posing a danger and a second psychiatrist, who initially failed to make the same judgement, later agreed with that view after his attempt to interview Bethwaite ended with her trying to strangle him.

A hospital order was necessary, said Judge Fanning, because of the substantial risk Bethwaite poses to herself and others, said the judge.

Judge Fanning added: “There is an ongoing significant risk to others… I am entirely satisfied that a hospital order is appropriate. It is necessary to protect the public from the risk of serious harm posed by Miss Bethwaite.

Bethwaite, currently being held in a medium secure psychiatric unit in Middlesbrough, will only be released with the approval of the Secretary of State.