Ex-nurse jailed for life after 'playing God' and injecting man in backside with deadly drug

A NHS nurse who "played God' by stabbing a record shop owner with a deadly drug stolen from the hospital where he worked has been jailed for life.

Darren Harris, 58, plunged a syringe loaded with powerful muscle-paralysing drug rocuronium into the backside of 65-year-old Gary Lewis. The medical-grade anaesthetic left the unsuspecting shopkeeper fighting for his life outside Betterdaze Records in Northallerton, North Yorks, on July 2 last year. The warped anaesthetist, who worked in the operating theatre at James Cook hospital in Middlesbrough, travelled to the market town with the hypodermic needle, before calmly stabbing Mr Lewis in the "indiscriminate" and "motiveless" attack.

Rocuronium is a powerful muscle relaxant used in , typically during surgeries or when a patient needs to be put on a ventilator.

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The drug 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 speak, and lost consciousness.

Mr Lewis only survived due to the delayed onset of the drug and the prompt treatment by paramedics who performed CPR after finding no pulse.

Harris, a married father-of-two, was jailed for a minimum of 15 years before being eligible for parole after being convicted of attempted murder.

No explanation for the attack has ever been put forward. Leeds Crown Court heard that motive remained a "complete mystery" and an "entirely indiscriminate attack" by Harris, who was "seeking to play God".

Passing sentence at Leeds Crown Court, judge Simon Phillips, KC, told Harris: "You were murderously intent on bringing Mr Lewis's heart to stop beating that afternoon.

"Stabbing Mr Lewis in his backside with a loaded syringe, when his back was turned to you, when he was seated at his desk reaching for some change, was entirely premeditated and entirely indiscriminate.

"You knew exactly what you were doing. There is no discernible motive other than the inescapable conclusion that you chose to do this appallingly cruel and cowardly act because it was within your power to do so.

"With that hypodermic syringe in your hand, you had the power to take a life and that is the outcome that inexplicably you wanted to achieve.

"You walked out of the shop casually as though you were an ordinary customer having just bought a record.

"I have no doubt that your expectation was that Mr Lewis would, within moments of being injected by you with the rocuronium, have gone into respiratory arrest leading to cardiac arrest.

“He would stop breathing and he would be later found in the shop and the expectation would have been, it would have been assumed, that he had suffered a cardiac arrest and died. You were intending to drive from the scene, leaving behind a dying man."

Harris tried to drive off in his wife's car 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.

Despite entering paralysis, the shopkeeper was able to reveal he had been injected before collapsing.

Instead of trying to use his skills and expertise to help Mr Lewis after he collapsed, Harris sat in a car "as if he was watching a TV show" and "acting like nothing had happened", the court heard.

When confronted by police, he denied any wrongdoing, telling officers: "I haven't got a needle. I had a 10ml syringe with water and I've just squirted the water. It was water."

Harris later claimed he had intended to "frighten" Mr Lewis following an altercation in his shop a month earlier, when he sold his 300-record collection for £400. He claimed he was pushed over in the street but the CCTV evidence showed no fall had taken place.

Mr Lewis, a former police officer of 30 years' service, told how he died twice following the "cold-blooded and calculated" attack before being brought back to life by paramedics.

Reading a statement in court, Mr Lewis told his attacker: "On that day, he spent several hours in my shop, during which time we talked in the same way I talk to all my customers, in a friendly environment of my shop.

"I now know that for that whole time he was planning and waiting for the right time to attack me with the syringe from his pocket, a syringe which contained that lethal substance which he knew would kill me.

"He waited until I was seated in a small space behind my shop counter, he waited until my back was turned and then injected me in the thigh, the precise spot a trained professional would use for maximum efficacy."

He added: "Nothing in life prepared me for the sheer terror and panic I felt.

"When I collapsed on the street from the effects of that drug, I lost the ability to move, I lost the ability to speak.

"Although I was actually trying to scream in sheer terror without realising, I realised my breathing was failing, I panicked and I knew I was dying, totally paralysed within two minutes of the attack and I will never recover from that near-death experience.

"To this day after the flashbacks every time I read or hear about an assault or a death, I'm instantly back on that pavement realising that it's me that's about to die. He sat there in his car a few feet away from me, the last thing I remember seeing and he watched me die. He watched me die and he did nothing."

Richard Herrmann, prosecuting, said Harris had planned to make a "lethal injection" and had intended to kill.

He said: "The drug is used in anaesthesia with the effect of paralysing all the muscles of the body, including the diaphragm.

"The defendant was arrested at the scene where he refused to acknowledge he had done anything at all to Gary Lewis, let alone did he assist those fighting to save Mr Lewis's life by telling them what he had injected him with."

Harris worked as senior member of the cardiothoracic operating theatre team at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough.

He was a "highly experienced" and "highly-banded" nurse with no previous convictions, the court heard.

Sean Smith, defending, said: "Mr Harris, of hitherto good character, having reached the age of 57 years had contributed substantially to the hospital at which he worked.

"He has made valuable contributions to hospital care and patients over a number of years.

"This act has essentially robbed him of that good character and most importantly robbed his wife and his family of his support in the future."

Mr Smith said Harris, from Middlesbrough, was "likely" to have suffered a depressive illness which "may have contributed" to his decision to attack Mr Lewis.

Handing down a life sentence, Judge Phillips told the nurse "There was nothing half-hearted about your intentions to bring this man's life to an end.

"At no stage did you disclose what you had administered to this unsuspecting and entirely innocent victim of your indiscriminate attempt to murder.

"It is clear you were self controlled in your own actions and you sought to be controlling of others."

South Tees Hospitals Foundation Trust said Harris' employment was terminated in August 2024.

It said a review into the storage of medications, including controlled drugs, in cardiac theatres and general theatres was carried out in light of the incident.

After the sentencing Edmund Hall of the Crown Prosecution Service said: “Harris attempted to murder Gary Lewis in an unexplained and unprovoked attack. We cannot imagine the terrifying impact of this attack; it left the Gary paralysed at the time but with the full knowledge of knowing what was happening to him, including the risk of death.

“Fortunately, he did not die because of the intervention of medical experts and support of local people and neighbour. Harris showed no remorse for his attack and constantly denied he attempted to murder the victim.

“We want to thank for their investigative work, which supported the CPS prosecution of the defendant and we hope the sentence offers the victim and his family a sense of justice for this shocking and life threatening attack.”

Following sentencing Mr Lewis said: “My life and that of my family, friends and colleagues has been irrevocably changed by the violent and unprovoked actions of Darren Harris on that day in July. I’m grateful for the overwhelming help and support that I have had throughout the six months since this attack.”