Man who stole hospital patient's mobile phone while she was having treatment avoids jail

Samuel Robinson, 38, was given a six-month sentence, suspended for two years, for what his lawyer described as a “mean” offence.

Robinson, of no fixed abode, took the iPhone 13 during a raid on the victim’s beside locker at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast earlier this month.

Prosecutors told the city’s Magistrates Court CCTV footage showed him going onto the ward twice on March 9.

On the second occasion he could be seen removing something from a storage unit used by the victim. At that stage she had been taken from the ward for medical treatment.

“The defendant was the only person in the room while the patient wasn’t there,” a Crown lawyer said.

Robinson, who had attended the hospital’s Emergency Department, was arrested a short time later in the city centre. Although he did not have the phone at that stage, police seized £210 in cash from him.

Robinson initially denied the theft and claimed he was only on the victim’s ward due to getting lost. But in court today he pleaded guilty to stealing the mobile.

Defence solicitor Pearse MacDermott acknowledged: “This was a mean incident involving a theft from a hospital patient.”

In a separate incident, Robinson also admitted common assault and disorderly behaviour outside a city centre bar.

He was arrested after being seen striking a woman during disturbances in the Hill Street area on January 27.

District Judge Steven Keown said the theft offence warranted a custodial term. But he decided to give Robinson one final chance by imposing a suspended sentence.

“If he comes back in breach of that (by offending again) he could be looking at 12 months in custody,” Mr Keown warned. Robinson was also ordered to pay £210 compensation for the phone theft.