A YOB hurled abuse and a rock at hard-pressed nurses and hospital staff.

Louis Theodorou was high on cocaine when he was taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Eastern Road, Brighton.

The 27-year-old demanded to be put on a trolley.

He abused a nurse and threatened security guards with clenched fists, then later threw a rock at them.

The incident happened in front of distressed and elderly patients in the hospital.

At Lewes Crown Court it was revealed that Theodorou has been in and out of court since the age of ten, when he became the youngest child in Sussex to receive an Asbo (antisocial behaviour order).

Judge Mark Van Der Zwart was not impressed by his excuses of mental health problems.

“Your life has been thoroughly antisocial,” the judge told him.

Theodorou was jailed for 15 months for the affray, which happened in April this year.

The judge said: “Our caring, dedicated and hard-pressed NHS staff are all too often subjected to threatening behaviour and violence.

“They were doing their best to help you.

“They are entitled to look to the courts for protection. Only a custodial sentence can be justified.”

Dale Sullivan, prosecuting, said Theodorou had been asked to wait for an assessment by a nurse after being taken to the Royal Sussex via ambulance.

He wanted to be on a trolley, and ignored the nurse’s instructions by getting on to a trolley and becoming abusive.

He refused to move to another area of the hospital and, after being removed, he threw a rock at guards.

Tayo Adebayo, defending, asked the judge to consider giving Theodorou a suspended sentence to allow him to engage with drug rehabilitation programmes.

Mr Adebayo said his client has been making good progress on an existing order to turn his life around.

Theodorou, of Stoney Close, Portslade, has also been holding down jobs as a plasterer and a builder.

But Judge Van Der Zwart said Theodorou has been in court too often for thefts, burglaries, public disorder, drugs, and assaults.

He said: “Lots of people have mental health problems.

“It is not an excuse or justification for behaviour like this.

“This was abusive and appalling and directed towards people trying to do their job.

“There were elderly patients waiting nearby who were no doubt alarmed by your behaviour.

“When the security guards removed you from the hospital, that should have been the end of the matter.

“But you walked a short distance, found an extremely large stone and threw it at the security staff.

“Fortunately you missed.

“Then when police arrived you tried to paint yourself as the victim.”