Plastic surgeon tried to burn down rival doctor’s home before stabbing him

A plastic surgeon who broke into a fellow doctor’s home and stabbed him in the middle of the night has been found guilty of attempted murder.

Jonathan Peter Brooks, 61, poured petrol over the floor before attacking his colleague Graeme Perks in January 2021.

The burns specialist was desperate to get Perks ‘out of the way’ because the fellow plastic surgeon had been a witness in disciplinary hearings against him.

His victim was woken up by a loud bang during the break in at his £1m home in Halam, Nottinghamshire and ran downstairs naked to confront the intruder.

Perks told police in a video interview he thought he was talking to his son when he met the concealed Brooks in the house.

Perks, who was recently retired at the time, added: ‘Nothing was said, and the next thing I remember was feeling a blow to my body.

‘I put my hands to the area where I felt it and it was warm and sticky, and I thought I felt something poking out from my abdomen and I decided that I must have been stabbed and that I needed to get back to the house.’

A surgeon who treated the retired doctor said Perks had a 95% chance of dying when he arrived at the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham for treatment.

Brooks, 61, had cycled to Perks’ home armed with a crowbar, cans of petrol, matches and a knife – all while dressed in camouflage.

Prosecutor Tracy Ayling KC said: ‘His intention was, say the Crown, to break into Mr Perks’s house, set fire to it and if necessary, stab Mr Perks.

‘In short, he intended to kill Mr Perks by either or both those means.’

The plastic surgeon was found guilty today of two counts of attempted murder, attempted arson with intent to endanger life and possession of a knife.

He had denied all those charges.

It can now be revealed Brooks went on hunger strike and failed to attend proceedings at Leicester Crown Court.

He also sacked his lawyers before the trial and was unrepresented in the case.

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