IMMORAL hospital bandit John McNeil, 24, has been sentenced to three years at Manchester Crown Court and barred from entering all the premises of Manchester and Salford Royal Hospitals after admitting to five counts of theft.
“The offences are so extreme that you wonder whether there is something unusually wrong with this defendant."
Mr McNeil, of no fixed address, purposefully stalked hospital corridors looking for opportune moments to steal from the helplessly vulnerable.
On February 11, McNeil entered the room of cancer patient Tracey Rowland and stole her iPhone as she lay drowsy on her bed in Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI). He also stole £123 from terminal cancer patient Deanna Walker on the same day.
Tragically, when Police returned to the hospital the next day, a nurse reported that Deanna was in her “final hours” when McNeil struck .
Similarly, Tracey Rowland passed away the following month from her illness. Before she died Tracey managed to give this statement:
“I have been left feeling very vulnerable. This incident has added a lot of stress and makes me feel both frightened and angry that a person would steal property from a patient in a hospital bed. I’m not in a physical or mental position to fight back.”
Unbelievably, McNeil continued on his spree and hit Salford Royal and the MRI again over the next few weeks, stealing more phones, wallets, purses, watches, jewellery and over £500 in cash.
In an uncommon move, prosecuting Judge Lindsey Kushner QC hinted that McNeil should have received a harsher sentence, telling Christopher Beckwith, prosecuting: “I wonder if I have pitched it slightly too low to be honest. But if you want to go and discuss it with the Court of Appeal, then you can.”
“The offences are so extreme that you wonder whether there is something unusually wrong with this defendant.
“I can’t imagine a meaner set of offences than these – unless somebody was dying at the roadside and you took their belongings off them.”
