A PATIENT flashed his genitals at hospital staff before defecating on the floor and smearing it into the windows, a court has heard.

Dennis Sterling had been a patient at Broadmoor Hospital in Crowthorne for about 14 years before the incident took place on February 21 last year.

The 44-year-old, who has a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, had called staff ‘white w****’ before defecating on the floor and causing more than £7,000 of damage to the hospital room.

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He appeared via video link at Reading Crown Court on Friday (November 24) for sentencing where he was also faced with a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm after slashing a staff member in the face with a piece of plastic.

Judge Amjad Nawaz handed Sterling an absolute discharge, which is when a defendant is guilty of an offence but is otherwise blameless, due to Sterling already having an indefinite hospital order.

During the sentencing, the court heard that on October 17, 2021, Sterling’s behaviour within the hospital had been ‘escalating’ resulting in all patients being returned to their rooms.

On CCTV, Sterling can be seen ‘fiddling’ with his door, where it is believed he accessed a sharp piece of plastic, before leaving the room.

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He then approached a group of staff members and started shouting at them, “If you come near me, I will shank you up.”

Sterling then punched staff member, Chloe Clark, and slashed her face. In a victim impact statement, Ms Clark wrote: “The scar acts as a constant reminder to me of the incident every time I look in the mirror.

“It makes me feel sad and stressed and I relieve unhappy thoughts. I feel the assault changed me, work is now difficult for me, I suffered reoccurring nightmares for several months.”

Four months later, Sterling was in the hospital’s ‘Quiet Day Room’ when he exposed his genitalia to staff, shouting “white b******” and “white w*****”.

He then started damaging the room and smashing the windows before defecating on the floor. Using a sock, he then picked up his faeces and smeared them on the broken windows.

Broadmoor Hospital stated Sterling had caused £7,502.06 of damage.

“This room was integral to patient’s therapy,” it said. “I had to be taken out of use – it caused significant stress for patients and made the work of staff more difficult.”

In court, Sterling expressed that he did not want to remain in the hospital and would rather go to jail.

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However, Judge Nawaz feared Sterling would be ‘vulnerable’ in jail, in particular, due to his access to his medication for paranoid schizophrenia.

Sterling remains at Broadmoor under Section 41 of the Mental Health Act 1983.