Smirking face of man who turned up at Nottingham A&E with knife in waistband

A man has been jailed after turning up to Nottingham's A&E department with a knife in his waistband. Adam Watson carried the blade into the Queen's Medical Centre on Saturday, January 18.

Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH), which runs the hospital, said staff in the emergency department noticed the knife and reported it to police, preventing a "potentially fatal incident". Officers attended the hospital at 5.30am and arrested Watson, who was later charged with possession of a knife in a public place.

The 28-year-old, of Richardson Close, Nottingham, appeared at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court on Monday, January 20 where he admitted the offence and was jailed for eight months. Sergeant Natham Phipps, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “We work closely with hospital teams and I’d like to thank the staff on duty at QMC on Saturday who alerted us that this man was in possession of a knife.

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“Hard-working hospital staff should not have to deal with this sort of incident while on a shift but their alertness helped us to seize this weapon. There is never any excuse for anyone to be carrying a blade in public. It puts themselves and anyone they come into contact with at risk of harm.

Victoria Fensome, Divisional Nurse for Medicine at NUH, said: “I want to pay tribute to my emergency department and security colleagues. Thanks to their professionalism under difficult circumstances, they averted a potentially fatal incident.

“While the majority of those attending our hospitals demonstrate respect for our staff and their hard work, sadly a small, but growing number of people still choose to inflict verbal abuse and, in some instances, physical violence upon our staff. This will not be tolerated."