Two years jail for drunk whose bomb hoax locked down Russells Hall Hospital

Norman Taylor told a horrified support worker on the second floor of Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley that he had explosives in the holdall he was carrying.

The 43-year-old then pulled out a screw driver and ran off with the bag as the building was put into lockdown, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

Taylor had already phoned to tell police a bomb had been placed at the hospital and left his correct name and phone number before going to Russells Hall himself on September 7 last year.

“As a result patients were moved, ambulances were redirected to other hospitals and police specialist units were put on standby,” explained Miss Laura Culley, prosecuting.

Police rushed to both the hospital and Taylor’s home but he had already left.

He was detained at the hospital by security staff shortly after running off.

The defendant, who had turned to alcohol after a series of tragedies in his family, was so drunk he had started to hallucinate, a psychiatrist subsequently confirmed.

Taylor was on bail at the time after putting a handgun on the dashboard of a taxi moments after getting into the cab at Chester Street in Wolverhampton city centre on August 29 2016.

He was driven to a garage on nearby Birmingham Road where he got out of the vehicle leaving the gun behind but soon produced another firearm which he showed to a motorist at the filling station.

Armed police swooped to arrest him and discovered him in possession of four imitation firearms that could not be fired.

The previous day he had been planning to launch an air pistol shooting range.

Mr Lennart Poulsen, defending, said: “The bomb hoax was not a deliberately malicious act.

"It was the result of temporary psychosis resulting from heavy intoxication.

"But he takes full responsibility for his actions and has been dry for the past seven months.”

Taylor from Spiral Close, Halesowen, pleaded guilty to possession of four imitation firearms and two offences of making a malicious communication.

He was jailed for two years by Judge James Burbidge QC, who commented: “This was all caused by drunken hallucinations but you knew you had a problem with alcohol and should have addressed it but allowed it to take over your life.”