A 22-YEAR-OLD man has been jailed for four months after making a threatening phone call to a social worker based at the South West Acute Hospital, outside Enniskillen.

Daniel McCordick, of Darling Street, Enniskillen, was charged with improper use of a public telecommunications network and threatening to destroy or damage hospital property on November 19, 2015.

McCordick had entered guilty pleas to both offences at an earlier appearance before Fermanagh Magistrates Court, and a pre-sentence report was prepared in the case.

At his sentencing hearing yesterday (Wednesday), the court heard that, at 1pm on November 19, a social worker based in the South West Acute Hospital was left feeling “extremely threatened” after receiving a telephone call from the defendant.

He demanded to be allowed to see one of his children, who was sick and receiving treatment in the hospital. The defendant repeatedly swore at the social worker and made threats against her.

He added: “I’m going to come up and wreck the place.”

The phone call left the woman feeling “fearful” for the rest of the day. She was “terrified” that McCordick would appear at one of her appointments, the court heard.

The injured party said she was also afraid that the defendant would attack her as she left work.

Police subsequently arrested McCordick, who made no reply when he was cautioned with the offences.

During interview, he insisted that the telephone call had not been “menacing or abusive”. He admitted that he may have told the social worker to “f**k off”, but denied threatening to damage the hospital property.

Defending solicitor, Myles McManus, told the court that his client was “well known” to the criminal justice system, before adding that a large amount of his offending had been in his youth.

The solicitor said that McCordick had a “difficult upbringing” and a clinical psychologist had assessed him as having a “limited mental capacity” which fed into his frustrations.

In mitigation, Mr McManus said the defendant acknowledged that his behaviour had been unacceptable and said in the “heat of the moment”, adding that he wished to apologise to his victim.

The solicitor said McCordick was now taking steps to change his behaviour by enrolling on work safety courses and there was nothing pending against him.

Mr McManus told the court that it was a “sad fact” that social workers had to deal with people who were threatening and abusive, but stressed that no action had been taken by his client.

District judge, Paul Copeland, observed that he was satisfied that the appropriate sentence in the case was custody. He said that “dreadful threats” had been made over the telephone, which had a detrimental effect on the injured party and left her “fearful” going about her job. Mr Copeland said that imposing a custodial sentence on McCordick would act as a deterrent to others who would seek to abuse health workers in their workplace. Jailing the defendant for four months, the judge also ordered him to pay a £25 offender levy.