A patient who walked into a hospital armed with a bread knife said he took it to harm himself in case he wasn’t treated.

Alcoholic Andrew Swithenbank drinks at least a litre of wine a day and has problems with his pancreas as a result.

In the early hours of January 19 he was in excruciating pain and took the knife with him to the A&E department at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.

Shocked patients reported seeing the blade, which he took from his kitchen drawer, on him and police were called.

The 59-year-old said he would have cut himself open if medical assistance hadn’t been given.

He then thought better of carrying the knife and tossed it outside the Lindley hospital with it ending up on top of the smoking shelter.

Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, Acre Street, Lindley, Huddersfield.

Swithenbank, of Orchard Street in Primrose Hill, pleaded guilty to possessing a bladed article in public.

Alex Bozman, prosecuting, told Kirklees magistrates that Swithenbank attended at the A&E department shortly after 1am because he was experiencing pain due to difficulties with his pancreas.

He said: “He attended there for a consultation and treatment and members of the public alerted staff to the fact that he was in possession of a knife in the hospital.

“Security made enquiries and Swithenbank showed them the bread knife which he’d thrown on top of a smoking shelter.”

The knife was recovered and police were called to arrest him, magistrates were told.

Mr Bozman said: “He said he had the knife with him because if he didn’t get into the hospital he was going to cut himself open because of the level of pain he was in.

“Then he thought better of it and threw the knife away.”

Kirklees Magistrates Court.

Magistrates were told that Swithenbank had been drinking with his 88-year-old stepfather when he suffered pain and was advised via the NHS 111 number to go to A&E.

He took the knife with him but, having been seen by a doctor, decided to throw the knife away and it landed on the shelter roof.

Swithenbank said he had no intention to harm anybody else but understood why people in the hospital would have been alarmed by the sight of the knife.

He held a previous alcohol-related conviction and there were incidents where police had to remove knives from him.

These never resulted in any charges but showed that he had “a propensity of carrying knives,” Mr Bozman said.

Magistrates were told that Swithenbank started drinking aged 13 and used alcohol as a coping mechanism.

They heard that he drinks at least one litre of wine topped up with other alcohol daily and drinks from getting up in the morning.

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Musa Patel, mitigating, said that his client’s pancreas was in a very bad state due to his high level of alcohol intake from a young age.

He told magistrates: “He was not in the best state of mind that morning and he thought he’d take the knife with him and in the absence of emergency help he’d harm himself to eliminate the pain.

“It’s a very sad scenario and could be construed as a cry for help.”

Magistrates told Swithenbank that they viewed taking a knife into a hospital as very serious and they jailed him for six weeks, suspended for a year.

He was ordered to complete 10 days of rehabilitation activities as part of a community order and will have to pay £115 victim surcharge.

The knife will be forfeited and destroyed.