AN ALCOHOLIC who punched a nurse and told security staff he was in the IRA and would have them kneecapped has been jailed for 18 weeks.

Homeless Desmond Patrick Watters, 52, appeared at Chester Magistrates Court yesterday (Wednesday) for sentence after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing.

Prosecuting, Rob Youds said: “He was brought into the Countess of Chester Hospital shortly after midnight, drunk and incapable.

“At 6.25am, a staff nurse tried to wake him to ask him to move to different area of the ward.

“He was verbally abusive and threw a punch, catching her chest and then her chin, causing her to bite her lip.

“He was abusive to security staff and said, ‘I am in the IRA. I know where you live and I am going to get mates from Manchester to kneecap you’.”

Watters, who has 134 convictions for 235 offences, has 21 previous convictions for public order offences and 11 for assaults.

Defending, Terry Maddocks, said: “Mr Watters didn’t intend to hit the nurse. He gets very nervous when he sleeps due to sleeping on the streets.

“It is very unfortunate that he does find himself in these predicaments. He developed alcohol problems because he was abused as a child.”

Magistrates also ordered Watters to pay the nurse £200 compensation within three months and the 18 days already spent in custody will be taken off the sentence.