Man escaped from police during X-ray at Chesterfield Royal Hospital

Andrzej Chmurzyński was arrested at his Shirebrook home in the early hours of August 23 last year, after climbing in through a window and injuring his hands, prosecutor Brian Outhwaite said.

Police were called at 11.30pm the day before, when he smashed windows in the dining room and kitchen, Derby Crown Court heard.

As he was being X-rayed, he ran off down a hospital corridor, chased by officers, and fled into the night.

Chmurzyński was at large for five weeks before police were called to another disturbance at his house, on September 29, and he was arrested.

William Bennett, mitigating, said the escape was at the bottom end of the scale for that type of offence.

"He found his wife entertaining another man at their home," he said. "He broke a window and the police were called.

"His wife said she was going to empty his bank account and he panicked and took action."

The court heard he sustained a broken left femur and broken bones in his right foot following a road traffic accident in June in which his car was hit head-on by an overtaking vehicle, and this had led to delays.

"He was left with one leg three centimetres shorter than the other and is being taught to walk with a built-up shoe,” Mr Bennett said.

He received a three-month custodial sentence in Poland, but instead of serving it, he came to the UK for work instead and “buried his head in the sand,” Mr Bennett added.

Chmurzyński, aged 33, of Recreation Drive, Shirebrook, pleaded guilty to escaping from lawful custody, in February.

Recorder Adrian Reynolds told him: "Escape is always a very serious offence even though this is not the most serious example.”

But he added that the sentence could be suspended in view of the delays, his health and the present Covid-19 situation.

He handed Chmurzyński six months in prison, suspended for two years, with 25 rehabilitation days.

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