A nurse who ‘almost killed’ a stranger by injecting him with a powerful paralysing drug in a ‘motiveless’ attack has today been convicted of attempted murder.
Darren Harris, 58, went into a record shop and without provocation stabbed owner Gary Lewis, 65, in the backside with a hypodermic needle.
The drug rocuronium effectively paralyses the muscles of the body and a short time later Mr Lewis collapsed outside his shop, struggled to breathe, was unable to move or communicate and lost consciousness.
‘It was the most frightening feeling I have ever experienced and it just all happened so fast,’ said Mr Lewis. ‘I genuinely thought I was dying.’
The jury at Leeds Crown Court took less than two hours to find him guilty of attempted murder. Harris showed no emotion as the verdict was announced.
The judge said Harris, who has been in custody since his arrest last July, will receive a ‘very lengthy’ jail term.
Sentencing was adjourned to assess Harris’s level of ‘dangerousness.’
Mr Lewis only survived due to prompt treatment by paramedics who performed CPR after finding no pulse and gave him oxygen. The court heard Mr Lewis would have died within minutes without the emergency treatment.
Record store owner Gary Lewis (pictured) was attacked by a nurse administering a dose of Rocuronium using a needle and syringe in Northallerton in North Yorkshire, a court has heard
Darren Harris, 58, went into a record shop and without provocation stabbed owner Mr Lewis, 65. Harris (pictured) has today been convicted of attempted murder
Darren Harris, 57, from Middlesbrough, has been convicted of attempted murder. He is pictured in police body-worn camera footage being arrested shortly after the attack
Harris had tried to drive off but before the drug took effect Mr Lewis ran after him, moved a sign into the road as a barrier and physically blocked his car from leaving.
He was also able to shout for help and reveal he had been injected before collapsing, the court was told.
Harris worked as senior member of the cardiothoracic operating theatre team at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough. He had illegally taken the drug rocuronium, routinely used to aid the intubation of patients, from work.
The motive for the bizarre attack remains a mystery.
Harris, a married father-of-two, told police after his arrest he had injected Mr Lewis with water and intended to ‘frighten’ him after an altercation a month before in the shop. Harris claimed he had been pushed out of the shop to the pavement outside by Mr Lewis after going there to sell his records.
But the court heard this incident never happened. Harris sold his record collection of 300 or 400 records to Mr Lewis for £400 on 29 May. But Mr Lewis said he had never argued with a customer and no one had fallen. CCTV evidence showed no fall had taken place outside.
Prosecutor Richard Herrmann told jurors: ‘It’s nonsense that there had been an altercation. There was no altercation.’
The defendant declined to give evidence but Mr Lewis, who owns the Betterdaze shop in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, recalled his ordeal to the court.
CCTV footage captures the moment before Harris entered the store and jabbed his victim
Mr Lewis manages to get help, with CCTV showing him being aided by a police officer shortly after the attack. Seconds later, he is seen collapsed on the floor
Police soon arrested Harris, who had tried to flee in his car but was prevented from doing so by his victim, who blocked the exit off
Police footage, played in court, showed the moment Harris was confronted by an officer who demanded to know what was in the syringe used to attack Mr Lewis. Harris lies and says water
Harris returned to the shop on July 2 to buy some records and told Mr Lewis his wife had allowed him to have a music room in the house. Mr Lewis said they had a ‘very friendly conversation.’
Mr Lewis told the court he had no cause for concern, adding: ‘I was totally relaxed in his company.’
Moments after Harris handed over cash to buy an Ian Drury record he crouched down and without warning injected Mr Lewis in the buttock.
‘I felt a prick. It was very sharp and deep and painful,’ he said. ‘I was in total shock and I didn’t know what to do.’
The shop owner said he followed Harris out the shop to his car and asked what he injected him with. Harris said: ‘Only water mate.’
Mr Lewis, a former police officer of 30 years’ service, said he shouted to a colleague for help and stood in the parking area exit to block Harris as he tried to drive off.
‘I started to feel dizzy then I felt my legs go numb and I told Sue (his colleague) this who was by that point on the phone to the police and the ambulance. And I remember just becoming more and more unable to move.’
While emergency services battled to save Mr Lewis’s life outside the shop, ‘calm’ Harris was repeatedly asked what he had injected him with and responded with ‘water’, a trial heard
Nurse Harris is seen trying to get into his car. However, the road was blocked by his victim before he collapsed.
Harris jabbed his victim at the music shop Betterdaze (pictured) in Northallerton last July
Another shopkeeper brought out a chair and Mr Lewis sat down.
‘I couldn’t hold my head, arms. I was losing consciousness,’ he recalled.
‘I tried to move something to let people know that I was still conscious.
‘I tried hands, head, voice, feet. I remember her (Sue) shouting towards the phone ‘he’s fitting!’
‘I actually thought I was going to die. I couldn’t breathe, I was choking. Nothing moved. I was even trying to scream, I know that sounds dramatic, thinking if I can’t get a word out maybe I can scream. I couldn’t do that either.’
Mr Lewis said he believed he would never recover from the trauma.
‘I am not recovered now and I probably never will,’ he said. ‘I am wary of people being behind me and near me.’
The court heard Harris would have known the effects of the drug rocuronium through his job working with anaesthetics in hospital.
Dr Alistair White, a consultant who treated Mr Lewis, told the court he would have died if he had not been helped to breathe by medical treatment. The drug stops the muscles that enable breathing from working and without medical help it quickly causes death, the court heard. Rocuronium is safe in operating theatres as patients are connected to equipment that supports breathing.
The prosecutor told the jury Mr Lewis came ‘very, very close’ to dying and ‘intended to kill’ him. A police investigation found ‘no motive,’
Judge Simon Phillips, KC, told the jury before they considered their verdict: ‘There is no need for the prosecution to prove motive.’
Harris lives with his wife and children in a semi-detached house in a quiet cul-de-sac in Middlesbrough.
Neighbours said they didn’t socialise or know him well. One said: ‘I wouldn’t see him very often but he would say hello if I did. He was quiet person.’
Harris has no previous convictions and was working in the hospital operating theatre until his arrest.
