Drunk thug who punched QA A&E doctor says ‘I’m disgusted and I hold my hands up’

In court the 44-year-old said he was disgusted with himself after punching Dr David Connor at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham in November.

But when he was arrested he swung from completely denying attacking the specialist registrar in A&E – to then admitting his assault.

Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court heard Keevill ranted he was ex-forces, despite this being untrue, and that he had PTSD before bursting into a cubicle occupied by an elderly woman.

Dr Connor warned Keevill, of Celandine Avenue, Locks Heath,that QA was a ‘military hospital and have some respect,’ prosecutor Graham Heath said.

Reading the doctor’s statement, Mr Heath added: ‘He approached me and squared up to me as if to have a fight and without warning he swung his right fist into my face.’

The punch connected with Dr Connor’s chin leaving him shocked and in pain.

Security bundled Keevill out the building and he was arrested by police before being taken to custody, and then to another hospital for treatment for his infected arm.

In a statement, Dr Connor said: ‘I find it disgusting, I have been assaulted at my place of work.’

He added: ‘It was a busy night at the department.

‘I was the only senior doctor on duty in the Emergency Department that covers the whole of Portsmouth.

‘Other patients should not have to be subjected to violent threats and abuse in what is a place of safety.’

Mr Heath told the court how Keevill called 999 demanding they take him to hospital or ‘he would get a knife out and cut himself again’.

In a bizarre police interview Keevill swung from complete denial – claiming he only flinched due to his infected arm – to admitting guilt and apologising. ‘I had an infected arm, I flinched – that’s all I can remember,’ he said. ‘If I put one on him he would have (known it). He would have dropped.’

But he suddenly admitted: ‘I hold my hands up to it, I don’t need a solicitor. They do a wonderful job and if that’s the way I was, I’m disgusted.’

Keevill admitted assaulting an emergency worker under tougher legislation brought in last year.

In December he previously narrowly avoided jail with an 18-week suspended sentence with rehabilitation days for assaulting a police officer in May.

But he did not breach that order because the November 26 assault on Dr Connor was before his sentence for the police assault.

Chair of the bench Eileen Cowling sentenced Keevil to four months’ jail but suspended the term for 18 months. ‘The custody threshold was passed but after careful consideration we decided to suspend the sentence,’ she said.

‘We do feel there is a reasonable chance of rehabilitation and you have shown remorse for what you did. Had you not pleaded guilty the sentence would have been greater.’

Keevil was also told to pay costs of £85, compensation of £150 and a surcharge of £115.

As he left the court an emotional Keevil vowed to change his ways. ‘I’ve learnt from this,’ he said.

Tim Sparkes, for Keevill, said his client had suffered abuse in his past and was suffering PTSD from that, an from an incident when he saved a colleague from a collapsing scaffold in 2010.

Mr Sparkes said: ‘He’s on a building site and saved someone’s life by getting them off a piece of scaffold which then collapsed with him on it. He suffers from PTSD because of that and a mild personality disorder.’

He said Keevill’s conditions are ‘exacerbated’ by his ‘entrenched alcohol problem’ but that he is ‘showing signs of very real rehabilitation’.

Mr Sparkes added: ‘When he’s in remission keeping off any alcohol - and there are long periods of remission - within which he’s of no problem at all. He engages with society quite properly.’