A prisoner who slammed a hospital door into a guard and fled on foot before being tackled by a nurse has caught coronavirus in prison, a court heard.
A judge at Oxford Crown Court remanded Ryan Searle, 39, in custody before Christmas after he pleaded guilty to assaulting an emergency worker and escape from lawful custody.
On Thursday, Judge Michael Gledhill QC was told that Searle had not been brought from HMP Winchester to be sentenced as he’d caught coronavirus and was self-isolating.
His sentencing hearing was adjourned to January 28.
Searle had been receiving treatment at the Churchill Hospital, Oxford, on July 18, 2020, while a remand prisoner at HMP Bullingdon.
He told the female guard that he needed to go to the toilet. She waited outside the door and was knocked aside when Searle pushed passed and ran away – pursued by the prison officer. He was stopped by a nurse in the hospital car park.
Last month, he asked to change his plea to not guilty after being told he would spend Christmas behind bars. He said of the prison officer he’d attacked: “She’s a lovely woman, I would never hurt her.”
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