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A plastic surgeon who attempted to murder a colleague he “hated” has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 22 years.
Jonathan Peter Brooks, 61, known as Peter, who specialised in treating burn scars, broke into the Nottinghamshire home of Graeme Perks in the middle of the night on 14 January 2021 wearing camouflage gear and doused the floor with petrol with the intention of setting it alight.
After being disturbed by Perks, who was a witness in a disciplinary hearing against him, Brooks stabbed the “highly respected” fellow surgeon in the abdomen.
Brooks was convicted in April of two counts of attempted murder, one of attempted arson with intent to endanger life and one count of possession of a bladed article after a four-week trial at Leicester crown court, sitting in Loughborough.
He was sentenced over video link after refusing to leave his cell in HMP Norwich to attend court, according to his barrister.
Brooks held a grudge against his victim and wanted him “out of the way” after he gave evidence to a tribunal that could have led to Brooks losing his job with Nottingham university hospitals NHS trust, the court heard.
He was “fixated”, Mr Justice Pepperall said, on his employment difficulties and had a “sense of grievance developing into deep anger” towards Perks. Despite claiming he had acted in self-defence, it was clear he was the “sole aggressor” in the “murderous expedition”, the judge said.
Jurors were told how on the night of the attack the defendant cycled through snow to the home that Perks, who was 65 and had retired a month earlier, shared with his wife and son.
Perks heard the noise of his colleague breaking into the conservatory and went downstairs, where he could feel his feet were “a bit damp” from the petrol splashed up the stair walls. He felt a blow to his body as he was stabbed, which resulted in “extremely life-threatening” injuries to his liver, intestines and pancreas, and a 95% chance of death.
The defendant was found asleep on a garden bench later that morning when he was taken to hospital for injuries to his hand, and was arrested.
In a victim impact statement read to the court by the prosecutor, Tracy Ayling KC, Perks described the attack as an “unimaginable catastrophe” and observed that it was “ironic that a burns surgeon should wish to immolate our family”.
He said: “This has been a nightmare for my wife and son who must have wondered if I was going to survive. This has been beyond every struggle in our lives so far.”
He added: “I have no ill feelings, hatred or bitterness towards my ex-colleague and derive no satisfaction from the guilty conviction. It is just another interesting chapter in life, and I wish his family well. I remain eternally grateful that it was me, not Bev or Henry who were stabbed, and reflect how ironic that a burns surgeon should wish to immolate our family.”
Henry Perks, Perks’s son, described Brooks as a “highly dangerous and remorseless individual” and “nothing more than a bully”, adding: “He simply has no morals, sees no wrong in his actions and will stop at nothing to hurt those he perceives to have wronged him. I have no doubt his failure to silence my father will consume his mind and make him dangerous in the years after his release.”
Ayling said Brooks was “manipulative” and had shown no remorse for what he had done. She said: “He believes himself to be not guilty of the offences. He believes he has been unlawfully tried. He has a history of being manipulative.”
Stephen Leslie KC, defending, said Brooks was too unwell due to a hunger strike he had conducted during his trial, and had stated that he would “rather be dead than incarcerated”.
Pepperall previously told the court that on “no fewer than eight occasions” since 2021, Brooks, formerly of Southwell, had “used hunger strikes or the threat of some other self-harm to achieve some advantage”. His convictions followed a four-year series of legal hearings, including a mistrial and seven other aborted trial dates.
