A PSYCHIATRIC nurse who broke the arm of a violent patient while restraining him at a Gwent hospital was fined £1,000 yesterday.

Michael Murphy, 32, a married man with no previous convictions, was described at Newport crown court as "a caring, responsible nurse". He was also ordered to pay £400 costs.

Murphy had admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm on the male patient at St Cadoc's Hospital, Caerleon, on August 9, last year.

Prosecutor Christopher Williams said that during a dispute, the victim elbowed Murphy in the face and he then threw the patient to the floor.

When Murphy, of Station Avenue, Ynysddu, pushed the patient's arm up his back, he fractured it. Judge David Morris said: "This was a difficult patient, mentally sick, who had been criminally violent on many occasions.

"He became unreasonably violent, striking the defendant for no good reason at all."

Passing sentence, the judge told Murphy: "While in employment as a specially trained mental health nurse, you inflicted a serious injury on a man entrusted to your care. You did so in rather special circumstances." The patient, the judge said, was behaving in a difficult, aggressive, violent manner.

"When reasonably remonstrated with by you and a colleague he became violent and struck you a blow with his elbow in the face."

It was accepted by the Crown that the patient required lawful restraint. "But you simply lost your temper and subjected him to force which was unnecessary and unlawful," said the judge, who added that he believed Murphy was full of genuine remorse for his loss of control.

Murphy, he added, had an outstanding career as a caring responsible nurse.

It was likely he would never work as a mental health nurse again which would cause economic hardship to his family, the court was told.

Murphy's counsel Stephen Thomas says he was currently suspended and would inevitably lose his employment at St Cadoc's as well as his nursing registration which would have "profound effects on him and his family".

He said Murphy had received a good education and planned to retrain. A Gwent Healthcare Trust spokesman said after the hearing that disciplinary proceedings against Murphy are ongoing. The Nursing and Midwifery Council is also investigating the matter.