If you are my hostage there is nothing you can do

A MAN who held a council receptionist hostage at knifepoint inside her car at a hospital after kidnapping her from her desk has been jailed by a judge who called him a danger to society.

- PAUL BRITTON

The Royal Oldham Hospital's A&E department was placed on full 'lockdown' in August last year as Daniel Buckley, 32, told a hospital sister who walked over: "You need armed police." 

Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court court heard there was a 20-minute 'stand-off' with firearms officers before Buckley, who was carrying a meat cleaver and a knife, eventually surrendered and was arrested.

The council worker, a mother Buckley kidnapped from the reception of Oldham Civic Centre around 45 minutes earlier and forced to drive them in her car, managed to get out at the hospital and raise the alarm. She was praised by a judge for keeping him calm during what he called a 'prolonged and frightening incident.

Buckley, who had been discharged from a mental health hospital two days earlier, walked into the Oldham council building and put the blades down on the reception desk, together with a letter, before he forced the woman to get her car keys, walk outside to the car park and drive.

In a victim impact statement, she said she still suffers panic attacks.

Jayne Dagnell, prosecuting, said Buckley told the woman: "If you are my hostage, there is nothing you can do."