A HOSPITAL patient who was asked if he had any cannabis told staff he had thrown it out of the window, Burnley magistrates heard.

Damien Stacey, 19, refused to be searched and urged the staff to phone police if they wanted.

Stacey, a long-term patient in an acute psychiatric ward at Burnley General Hospital, was conditionally discharged for 12 months after admitting possessing cannabis. The court heard how Stacey finally handed a staff nurse a small piece of brown resin.

Richard Taylor, defending, said Stacey had been a patient at the hospital for a considerable time and was likely to remain so.

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