28 January 2025 , 21:24
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A nurse who ‘completely paralysed’ a total stranger with a deadly drug has been found guilty of attempted murder.
Darren Harris, 57, injected Betterdaze record shop owner Gary Lewis’ buttock with Rocuronium in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, last July 2.
The muscle relaxant, which Harris had stolen from James Cook Hospital in Teesside, where he worked, left Lewis ‘completely paralysed’ on the cobbles outside where he had slid off his chair.
Lewis was fully aware of what was happening around him, but he couldn’t speak or respond before he lost consciousness, stopped breathing and went into respiratory arrest.
‘I thought I was going to die’, he told the jury at Leeds Crown Court. ‘It was the most frightening experience I have ever had.’
As emergency services worked to save his life, police repeatedly asked a ‘calm’ Harris what was inside the syringe.
‘Nothing’, he replied. Bodycam footage recorded the moments before his arrest.
Darren Harris, 57, will be sentenced at a later date (Picture: North Yorkshire Police)
‘So there’s nothing in that needle?’, an officer asked.
‘I haven’t got a needle’, Harris said. ‘I had a 10ml syringe with water, and I have just squirted the water, it was water.’
A female office was then heard asking: ‘Are you sure that in that syringe there was nothing other than water?’
‘Just water’, Harris replied.
Gary Lewis had run Betterdaze record store on Zetland Street for 15 years (Picture: Raoul Dixon/North News)
Harris, of Amesbury Crescent, Middlesbrough, Teesside, was found guilty of attempted murder after just over an hour of deliberation.
He had denied the charge but admitted injecting Mr Lewis, claiming he had done so just to cause some numbing and ‘give him a fright’.
The drug Rocuronium is used to relax throat muscles and stop breathing so patients can be intubated during procedures in hospital operating theatres, where they are closely observed, with machines to make them breathe mechanically, toxicologist Dr David Berry told the jury.
Doctor told jurors: ‘The risk is the breathing muscles, if they stop working, you are not breathing therefore the danger is there would be no oxygen entering the system and death would ensue.’
Gary Lewis survived by fleeing the store and calling for help (Picture: Raoul Dixon/North News)
Prosecutor Richard Herrmann told the court: ‘It is a matter of great good fortune that the effects of the drug were delayed so Gary Lewis was able to pursue the defendant out of the otherwise empty shop, amongst other things to shout for help and tell those who came to his aid what happened.
‘Had he not been able to get out, it is highly probable, and it certainly Gary Lewis’ belief, he would have died alone in his shop behind the counter and in all likelihood with it being put down to natural causes.
‘Had he not been initially fit enough to tell those who came to his aid he had been injected with something then those health professionals who ultimately saved his life would have been so far behind the start line they might not have been able to save him.’
Mr Herrmann added: ‘The events of this case involve the manifestation of two of the greatest human fears.
‘The first, it involves and out of nowhere, to all intents and purposes completely unprovoked, indiscriminate attack of extreme violence by a complete stranger in plain sight and in broad daylight.
‘And the second, it rendered the victim completely paralysed, unable to communicate in any way, even in the slightest of ways, with those who were panicking and those who were trying to save him while at the same time and up to the point he loses consciousness, being able to hear and understand everything that was going on around him.’
Judge Simon Phillips KC adjourned sentence and ordered the preparation of reports to address the future risk Harris may pose to the public.
The judge warned a life sentence will be considered at the next hearing.