Needle attack nurse guilty of attempted murder

A nurse who injected a record shop owner with a muscle-relaxing anaesthetic has been found guilty of attempted murder.

Darren Harris stabbed Gary Lewis in the buttocks with a syringe containing rocuronium at the Betterdaze shop in Northallerton on 2 July last year.

Mr Lewis was left "in a state of paralysis" and nearly died from the attack, Leeds Crown Court heard during the trial.

Harris, 58 and from Middlesbrough, will be sentenced by Judge Simon Phillips KC on 13 March.

Harris was a nurse for 24 years and got the rocuronium from his workplace at the James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough, the court heard.

He denied attempted murder and grievous bodily harm with intent, but admitted administering a noxious substance.

Harris did not give evidence during the trial, but the jury heard recordings of his interview with police.

He told them he had been aggrieved after visiting Betterdaze to sell Mr Lewis some of his own records on 29 May.

He said they had had an altercation and Mr Lewis had pushed him out of the shop, but CCTV footage showed no such altercation.

Richard Herrmann, who prosecuted the case, told jurors that Mr Lewis came "very, very close" to dying and that Harris had "intended to kill" him.

"The only reason the defendant didn't make that short walk [to give evidence] was because he had no answers, or none that would have stood up to the scrutiny of being cross-examined," Mr Herrmann said.

"It's really difficult to actually know what his defence is."

Sean Smith, who defended Harris during the trial, told the court that his client did not "have to prove anything".

He told the jury they "had to be sure he intended to kill".

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