Activist threatened nurses over lack of taxi

AN anti-capitalist activist threatened two nurses at a busy Capital A&E department after they informed him the NHS didn’t provide a free taxi service to patients.

Zion Mitchell, 23, believed he was entitled to a cab at the taxpayer’s expense after spending the night in casualty at the ERI.

The city’s sheriff court yesterday heard how when staff informed him the medical centre didn’t operate such a service, he started shouting, swearing and being abusive.

The Occupy Edinburgh protester, from Buckhaven, Fife, behaved so badly that the attention of every worker on the ward was drawn to trying to keep him under control.

Doctors and nurses at the unit couldn’t attend to any other patients in their care until police arrived to arrest him.

When officers tried to reason with Mitchell, the thug – who had spent the night before the incident drinking large quantities of whisky – still demanded a free taxi.

Depute procurator fiscal Pauline Shade told the court that Mitchell was taken to hospital on December 9 after being assaulted.

He had spent the night drinking spirits with another person. Sheriff Maciver deferred sentence on Mitchell until next week.