A WOMAN has been jailed after a series of assaults on medical staff at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester.

Claire Louise Trussler, 38, admitted the attacks on Emma Ford, Mark Brewer, Thomas Bosley, Christopher Jones and Rhianwen Evans, all on February 24.

Trussler, of Anton Road, Andover, also pleaded guilty to criminal damage to A4 folders, a light and a wall in an eye-testing room belonging to Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust.

The bench at Basingstoke Magistrates Court jailed her for 12 weeks reflecting the seriousness of the offences on paramedics on hospital premises.

Magistrates said they needed to show that such attacks were unacceptable.

The sentence was deemed served because of the time Trussler has already spent in detention awaiting the hearing.

Trussler was also ordered to pay a £115 victim surcharge.

Attacks on medical staff nationwide are becoming increasingly common with one of the factors being a rise in the number of drunk people attending accident and emergency departments.