A man has been locked up for 15 months for sexually assaulting a nurse at Bradford Royal Infirmary which left her scared to go to work.

Daniel McLay, 32, of Ploughmans Croft, Swain House, attacked the nurse last year after he had been brought into hospital following a fire at his home.

Andrew Horton, prosecuting at Bradford Crown Court, said the nurse was treating McLay for smoke inhalation in a bay with the curtain open, when he asked her to perform a sex act on him.

She told him it was an inappropriate comment, but McLay persisted in acting in a “strange manner” which made her uncomfortable.

Mr Horton said: “He asked for the curtain to be closed, but the nurse said ‘no’ and told him it wouldn’t be long before he was moved.”

She left the bay and went into a staff only corridor nearby to request for a porter to move him.

While she was working on the computer, she felt someone grab her behind “hard” and turned round to see McLay standing there, gesturing for her to come into the store room he was standing in.

Mr Horton added: “The nurse said she was frozen to the spot and didn’t know what to do because no-one else was around.

“She eventually moved away and found another nurse, then security was called.”

McLay, who has schizophrenia, was arrested and after he was charged, he was admitted to Lynfield Mount Hospital to receive treatment for his mental health.

A statement read out on the nurse’s behalf in court revealed how the assault had affected her.

It read: “I’m frightened of everybody when I’m at work.

“People are always talking in different ways and I feel they are unpredictable."

Mr Horton said the nurse has gone to therapy, has disturbed sleep and feels on high alert all the time.

Abigail Langford, defending McLay, said his mental health had declined and he was suffering an increase in bouts of paranoia.

She said: “The defendant is remorseful and there’s concern from him and those who have his treatment in their hands about how he will cope in a custodial environment.”

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall, the Recorder of Bradford, cited the new Protect The Protectors Act, a new law which means offenders who attack 999 crews can receive tougher sentences.

Jailing him for 15 months, he told McLay, who has previous convictions for burglary, assaults and wounding: “What you did was, on the one hand, utterly distasteful, but done with the most dramatic and traumatic consequences for the nurse.

“Your very sad disease has not stood in the way of your offending you have been in prison on a number of occasions.

“This incident was a very proper response to the recognition that there are those in our society who have no respect and seem to think it’s their right to abuse those who put their life on the line.”

In 2008, McLay was jailed for over three years for his part in a brutal attack in Ravenscliffe.