A 21-year-old man who threatened to blow up West Suffolk Hospital in a hoax bomb call has been jailed for 26 months.
Following the call to the hospital’s switchboard by Nigel Hensby, 15 members of staff, including security guards and porters, spent two hours searching the premises causing “incredible disruption”, Ipswich Crown Court heard.
Hensby, of no fixed address, admitted making a hoax bomb call on February 16.
Sentencing him Judge Emma Peters said the hoax call would have had a harmful effect on staff and patients at the hospital.
She described the call as “needless, mindless, pointless stupidity.”
Jamas Hodivala, prosecuting, said Hensby had made a call to the switchboard operator at the hospital at 7.06pm saying: “I’m going to be blowing up West Suffolk Hospital at 12 o’clock tonight.”
After he hung up the switchboard operator contacted the police and the hospital authorities.
“A significant degree of effort was undertaken by the hospital to search the site looking for any evidence of a suspicious item,” said Mr Hodivala.
Hensby was arrested in his room at a hotel in Bury St Edmunds after police cross-matched his phone number with a call he’d made to Cambridge police on another occasion.
Archie McKay, for Hensby, said his client had a difficult background but was not mentally ill.
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