Man who kidnapped council receptionist from her desk with knife and meat cleaver sparked hospital lockdown and 'stand-off' with armed police

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.

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." A 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 read out in court, she said she still suffers panic attacks. "The whole situation still feels very surreal," she said. "I just keep thinking 'what if I had not managed to keep him calm'?"

She said she hasn't been able to drive since and added: "I just keep thinking 'what if there had been a different outcome'? I was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time." Jayne Dagnell, prosecuting, said Buckley told the woman: "If you are my hostage, there is nothing you can do."

"She felt her only option was to go with him to protect others. She said she felt he was on the verge of