A man who lashed out while being treated by a nurse before trying to bite a paramedic at Whitehaven's West Cumberland Hospital has been jailed.

Daniel Joseph Little, 21, was under the influence of substances and behaving aggressively before being admitted on the morning of October 27.

Little then yelled obscenities at a nurse and kicked out as she tried to take his blood pressure. Prosecutor Stella Hayden told Carlisle Crown Court: "The defendant's behaviour was such that the nurse describes fearing for her own and her colleagues' safety."

Little took hold of a paramedic's arm and tried to bite it. When arrested he pulled away from a PC and was put to the floor.

After admitting assault, a public order charge and resisting a police officer, he was sentenced by Judge James Adkin today (THURS). The court heard Little had also breached a suspended jail term, imposed last year for a cannabis supply crime, by failing to attend appointments.

Clare Thomas, defending, said Little, of Workington, could not recall the hospital offending but was "thoroughly ashamed of himself."

He was jailed for seven months by Judge Adkin, who said his job was to protect front-line medical staff. "Working as a paramedic or nurse is a difficult and stressful job," said the judge. "Those who use violence towards people only trying to help them must face punishment."