By Melanie Kembrey
He should have been celebrating becoming an uncle for the first time.
But Mousallem Samer, 25, will instead be behind bars after he allegedly flew into a potentially cocaine-fuelled fury and had to be Tasered by police in a hospital unit where his younger sister was due to give birth.
Families in the unit were evacuated as parts of Canterbury Hospital in Campsie were put into lockdown when Mr Samer lost his temper after repeatedly raising concerns about his sister's delivery with hospital staff on Friday night.
Mr Samer allegedly threw his body at police and spat at them, treated hospital staff aggressively and jumped on his sister's hospital bed during the dramatic outburst.
He has been charged with resisting arrest, behaving in an offensive manner, assaulting a police officer and intimidating doctors, nurses and security staff at the hospital.
In Burwood Local Court on Friday, magistrate Alexander Mijovich said Mr Samer had "turned it on" and had committed "amongst some of the worst behaviour I've seen".
The court heard that Mr Samer was already on an 18-month good behaviour bond for similar behaviour towards police and had a history of violence that dated back several years.
In an attempt to have him released from custody on bail, Mr Samer's solicitor Fadi Abbas said his client had been excited about becoming an uncle for the first time and he had a particularly close relationship with his sister.
His sister, the court heard, had a difficult pregnancy without support from her partner and during her labour had asked Mr Samer to seek help from hospital staff.
Mr Samer allegedly repeatedly tried to get staff to address her concerns but when police were called and tried to get him to leave the hospital he lost his temper.
He jumped onto his sister's hospital bed and reached out towards her, the court heard, and was Tasered, pepper sprayed and handcuffed. The court heard that families were so frightened by the blow-up they asked police to accompany them to their cars.
"He has caused the police to have to discharge a Taser within a birthing unit. The prosecution submit the behaviour is completely unacceptable," a police sergeant said.
Mr Abbas, however, said spitting was at the lower end of assaults and indicated his client would most likely plead not guilty to some of the charges, including intimidation.
"It's an extraordinary situation," Mr Abbas said. "It's the family's first time before the hospital, the first time they have had a child. There's also some background in relation to the sister, the partner ... that's the cause of the offence to a significant degree."
Mr Samer's family, the court heard, were willing to offer up $6000 and ensure that one of them was always with him whenever he left the house to secure him bail.
The court heard there were allegations that Mr Samer may have been on drugs at the time of the outburst, but Mr Abbas denied this and said if his client was it would been a "relapse on the day of his sister's birth" because he had been drug and alcohol tested while on parole.
Mr Abbas contended it was not inevitable his client would be sentenced to a prison term, but the magistrate retorted his client would be lucky to escape one.
Mr Mijovich refused the application for bail.
"Mr Samer, for whatever reasons, got extremely agitated within the hospital birthing unit where his sister was due to give birth," he said.
"Mr Samer's conduct is some of the worst I've seen in a hospital."
He is next due to appear before court later this month.