AN offender who assaulted two workers at Warrington Hospital has been handed a suspended jail term.

Darren Barton was violent towards two emergency workers at the Lovely Lane site, causing one actual harm.

But the 46-year-old was spared an immediate custodial sentence, with a judge agreeing that he could be rehabilitated.

He appeared before Warrington Magistrates’ Court recently after being charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and assault by beating of an emergency worker.

The court heard how both assaults occurred on July 22, 2021, at Warrington Hospital.

Barton assaulted a female hospital worker, thereby occasioning her actual bodily harm, and a male healthcare assistant doing his job.

District judge John McGarva said that the offences merited a custodial sentence due to their severity.

However, considering the defendant’s guilty pleas and a Probation Service determination that there is a realistic prospect of rehabilitation in his case, he added that the imposition of the sentence would not need to be immediate.

Barton, of Densham Avenue in Longford, was sentenced to 24 weeks in prison suspended for 18 months.

He was also ordered to complete a six-month alcohol treatment requirement, 19 days of the Thinking Skills programme and 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days.

No order for costs or a statutory victim surcharge was made, with the court instead prioritising £350 in compensation ordered for the two victims, which will be deducted from his benefits.