Nurse Darren Harris, 58, has been found guilty of attempted murder after he injected record shop owner Gary Lewis, 65, with a powerful anaesthetic he had stolen from hospital in a ‘motiveless’ attack
Video Unavailable
Moment shop owner falls to the ground after being injected with drug
Shocking footage shows the moment a shop owner falls to the ground after being injected with a deadly drug by an off-duty nurse.
Darren Harris, 58, stole Rocuronium from the anaesthetic theatre at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, where he worked, before the “motiveless” attack in Northallerton on July 2. After buying some vinyl and taking it back to his car, he then walked back into record shop, called Betterdaze.
But as the shop owner sat down and took Harris’s cash for another purchase, the nurse stabbed him in the bottom with a hypodermic needle. Victim Gary Lewis, 65, stopped breathing and almost died in the attack. CCTV footage of the incident shows him dropping to the ground on the pavement outside as he loses consciousness.
On Tuesday afternoon, a jury at Leeds Crown Court found Harris guilty of attempted murder after deliberating for less than 25 minutes. He had already admitted administering a noxious substance at an earlier hearing.
During Harris’ trial, prosecutor Richard Herrmann said Mr Lewis only survived the attack because he was able to make his way outside and tell people what had happened in the moments before he lost consciousness. He said his death would otherwise have likely have been put down to “natural causes”, and described the incident as a “manifestation of two of the greatest human fears – an attack from a complete stranger in broad daylight, and the victim being left unable to communicate while still hearing everything that was going on around them”.
Harris had previously visited the record shop on May 29 the same year, though Mr Lewis did not recognise him. Mr Lewis told the court that he knew he was losing consciousness after being injected, adding: “I was even trying to scream but I couldn’t.” Emergency services attending the scene asked Harris repeatedly what he had injected into his victim, but he told them “nothing”, and said to paramedics and police that it was “just water”.
Doctors treating Mr Lewis at James Cook University Hospital had to rule out a nerve agent such as Novichok, and were about to insert a breathing tube when his condition suddenly improved. Soon after they were informed he had been attacked by a man who worked in anaesthetics, and began to consider if rocuronium had been used.
After finding Harris guilty this week, Judge Simon Phillips told the court that he was ordering a psychiatric report before sentencing takes place. He said: “I’m particularly interested in what the psychiatrist might say about risk, and what risk the defendant poses to the public, in the future”.
The judge told Harris that he faces “a lengthy custodial sentence” for his offending. Harris, from Middlesbrough, was remanded in custody until he is sentenced on March 13.
