Seven years in prison for the attempted murder of a paramedic in Szczecin
The District Court in Szczecin on Tuesday imposed a total prison sentence of seven years and one month on a 64-year-old man who stabbed a paramedic and threatened staff at a military hospital a year ago. The sentence is not final.
The sentence for the man who was charged with assaulting a paramedic and a nurse and making threats against a nurse working in the emergency department of a military hospital was announced on Tuesday by Judge Michał Tomala, spokesman for the District Court in Szczecin.
The most serious charge involved the attempted murder of a paramedic who was assisting the man. The accused stabbed the paramedic in the left chest area, causing multiple injuries that could have resulted in death. This did not happen because the victim was provided with first aid, Tomala emphasized.
Attempted murder of a public official, such as a paramedic, carries a penalty of 15 years to life imprisonment. The accused, Grzegorz M., was also charged with threatening and using physical violence against a nurse and threatening a housemaid.
According to a spokesman for the District Court in Szczecin, the court sentenced the 64-year-old man to seven years in prison for attempted murder. He was sentenced to one year for assaulting a nurse, and eight months for threatening a nurse. He also ordered the paramedic to pay PLN 10,000 and the nurse PLN 1,000.
The total prison sentence is seven years and one month. The court applied extraordinary mitigation of punishment. It found that even the minimum penalty provided for in the Penal Code, 15 years' imprisonment, would be excessive in this case.
In an interview with PAP, the judge indicated the circumstances of the case that were taken into account when imposing the sentence.
“The man admitted to committing these acts, has no previous convictions and is elderly,” Tomala said.
He explained that when determining the aggregate penalty, the court "applied the principle of full absorption", assuming that the acts committed by the 64-year-old were committed in the same place and time.
The verdict issued on Tuesday is not final. The parties have the right to appeal to the Court of Appeal in Szczecin. Judge Tomala announced that motions for justification of the verdict were filed by both the defendant and the prosecutor, who requested a harsher sentence of 15 years and one month in prison.
The 64-year-old is in pre-trial detention.
An assault on medical personnel occurred on June 5, 2024, at the 109th Military Hospital on Piotra Skargi Street in Szczecin. Grzegorz M. was brought to the emergency room with a head injury. He was intoxicated. In the emergency room, doctors stitched up his wound, showed him to a bed, and informed him that a specialized head examination was necessary. He was behaving aggressively and shouting, so he was restrained with a seat belt.
Around 4:00 a.m., an aggressive patient broke free from his restraints, entered the room where a nurse was staying, and began threatening her with a knife. He struck her in the head with his hand. The woman fled to an adjacent room, where a paramedic was present. The attacker stabbed him in the chest. He then continued to threaten the medical staff and demanded to be released from the hospital. A police patrol subdued him in the courtyard.
The Szczecin-Niebuszewo District Prosecutor's Office investigated the case. Grzegorz M. was charged with three counts, including attempted murder of a paramedic. In March, the indictment was filed with the court.
Kurier Szczecinski
