A court has heard a man accused of incidents at Craigavon Area Hospital in January is now receiving treatment at the facility after suffering a heart attack.
Details were given to Craigavon Magistrates’ Court on Friday regarding Robert McKee (45), of Weaver Avenue in Donaghcloney, who is charged in relation to Saturday January 25 this year.
He is charged with hijacking a Volkswagen Polo car; taking the car without the consent of the owner; attempting to hijack an ambulance; driving whilst disqualified; absence of insurance; making a threat to kill a male; kidnapping of the male; assaulting the male and assaulting a police officer.
Objecting to bail at an earlier court, a police officer said the defendant was a patient at Craigavon Area Hospital. He was causing a disruption at the hospital. He removed a cannula from his arm and began “flicking blood” at police.
A short time later police received a report of a hijacking near the hospital. A man was driving a Volkswagen Polo and saw a man in the road erratically waving his arms.
He stopped to see if the person was ok. The man got into the passenger side of the car and said: “I have a gun. It is either your life or the car”.
He told the man to drive him to Belfast. The motorist drove to Carn Industrial Estate in Portadown. The defendant ordered the man out of the car and then drove off.
He did not come to police attention for a period of time and was “essentially on the run” before his arrest, said the police officer.
Another court sitting was told of a report of a man matching McKee’s description “jumping on the bonnet of an ambulance,” where he got into the driver’s seat and tried to drive off but was unable to so because of anti-theft technology.
The defendant has 54 previous offences.
A defence solicitor told the earlier court the defendant had “delirium” at the time of the alleged offences.
He said the defendant denied flicking blood.
The solicitor said the defendant said he removed the cannula to spill blood on the floor “so that people would understand that he had been at the hospital and that he was killed as a result of a joint police/paramilitary action. This was how far his mind had gone”.
At Craigavon Magistrates’ Court on Friday a prosecutor asked for the case to be adjourned to July 18.
A defence solicitor told Friday’s Court the defendant had a heart attack “six days ago” and is “currently in Craigavon Hospital”. He is in “poor health generally”.
