A MENTALLY ill man who caused more than £87,000 worth of damage on a rampage at Lynfield Mount Hospital last year has been given a hospital order.

Winston Smith, 42, from Bradford, carried out the extensive damage to windows at the mental health hospital in July 2018.

Police were initially called to reports of a man smashing the windows at a dentist surgery based in Little Horton Lane using a hammer.

A call was then received shortly afterwards from Lynfield Mount in Heaton stating a man was smashing windows at the hospital.

Smith was “systematically smashing windows” using the hammer, ensuring each window was fully smashed before moving onto the next one.

The damage caused at the dental practice was to a sum of £770, while the damage at Lynfield Mount was in excess of £87,000.

Witnesses to the vandalism spree were said to be “terrified”, Bradford Crown Court heard, with the windows being smashed in the proximity of inpatients who were inside rooms in the hospital, some of whom were being treated for serious mental health issues.

Smith could see people inside the rooms and was still smashing the windows, and staff begged with him to stop but he continued to use the hammer to smash glass panes.

When police arrived, Smith threw the hammer to the floor and complied with officers.

As he was being detained, Smith said: “That should be more than £5,000 worth of damage I think.”

The court heard Smith has a few previous convictions for criminal damage and violence.

Smith has been living in and receiving treatment at the Bretton Centre in Wakefield since the incident.

The court was told it was necessary for him to be detained for public protection under the Mental Health Act, and that he suffers from schizophrenia.

A member of staff from the hospital told the court in evidence: “This is not the first time he has done this and he has said himself he cannot guarantee he will not do it again.

“The Bretton Centre will provide robust care for him.”

In making Smith subject to a hospital order, Judge Colin Burn said: “Mr Smith I am not sending you to prison or sentencing you at all.

“You require treatment under the Mental Health Act.

“I conclude with what the doctors have said that you are, at the moment, so unwell other people could be put at risk.”

The Bretton Centre, based in Wakefield, is a low secure inpatient service which admits people whose care cannot be appropriately provided in prisons or local mental health services.