A YORK man with a "sexual fetish" for medical equipment who has terrorised and pestered staff at hospitals and dental practices up and down the country has failed in a bid to have his sentence cut.

Norman Hutchins, 54, of Rowntree Avenue, Clifton, pleaded guilty at York Crown Court in May this year to threatening behaviour, possessing a bladed article and obtaining property by deception and was given a three-year jail term.

He was also given an ASBO banning him from any medical establishment without prior notification.

Yesterday Hutchins, who has a personality disorder but no psychiatric condition, challenged that punishment at the Court of Appeal in London.

Three judges heard the sentence was too long and the ASBO an unnecessary additional punishment.

But Mr Justice Treacy, sitting with Lord Justice Laws and Sir John Alliott, dismissed the appeal as "unarguable".

He said at the time of the offences, Hutchins was in breach of an earlier civil injunction. He also said some of the incidents had occurred while Hutchins was on bail and observed that the ASBO would protect members of the medical community from his unwanted attentions.

The court heard Hutchins had to be removed from York District Hospital in January 2004 by a security officer, but returned soon afterwards and threatened the man with a 12-inch knife and shouted and swore at him.

Later in 2004, he was arrested in York and when officers searched the police van he had been in, they found a dinner knife.

Hutchins was released on bail, and went on to obtain property by deception.

He phoned dental practices in London, Nottingham and Dundee and asked for masks and other equipment to be sent to him, telling staff he was organising a fancy dress walk for a seriously ill child or putting on an amateur dramatics production.

In August, 2004, he pestered a sister at a hospital in Grimsby over the phone, asking for masks to be sent to him.

When he was eventually arrested, police found a substantial amount of medical clothing and a number of syringes at his home.

Mr Justice Treacy said Hutchins, who has convictions dating back to 1970, had a "sexual fetish" for medical equipment and when attempts had been made to treat his mental condition in the past, he had displayed his perversion and had been unwilling to co-operate with staff.

Updated: 10:02 Saturday, August 20, 2005