A ‘GENTLE GIANT’ who grabbed a male nurse by the throat and headbutted a doctor was yesterday jailed for six months.

While the actions of 32-year-old Tony Le Patourel were condemned by the Magistrate’s Court, it heard that he was under immense pressure and ‘motivated by love’ when he snapped.

Le Patourel (pictured), of 25, Valnord Estate, was visiting his six-month-old daughter, Georgie, who was born with Down’s Syndrome, has a heart condition and suffered from a collapsed lung.

He had been told a couple of days earlier that Georgie had a 50:50 chance of survival, said his advocate, Rachel Eeles.

Le Patourel was working full-time as a builder and supporting his partner and her four children from a previous marriage.

‘It was every parent’s worst nightmare and all that heartache had come to the surface,’ she said.

Her client admitted grabbing nurse Ray Bywater by the neck and head-butting paediatrician Bryan Lean in the Special Care Baby Unit on Frossard Ward on Monday 25 May.

Assistant-Magistrate Cherry McMillen said what the defendant had been through would test any parent but his behaviour, while understandable, was not acceptable.

‘You have been running from pillar to post caring for your children, worrying about financial matters. I accept that on the day your actions were probably motivated by love for your daughter but the expression used was so misplaced,’ she said.

Advocate Eeles said that Le Patourel ‘simply could not cope’.

Le Patourel was sentenced to six months for the assault on the doctor and a further four months, to be served concurrently, for the other assault. In November 2007, he was sentenced to two months in prison, suspended for two years, for assault. He received a month, to run concurrently, for breaching that sentence. He was also required to pay £200 token compensation.