Plastic surgeon who stabbed rival doctor and tried to burn down his home jailed

A plastic surgeon who broke into a fellow doctor’s home and stabbed him in the middle of the night has been jailed for life.

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.

Brooks was sentenced at Loughborough Courthouse today to life in prison, with a minimum term of 22 years, after being found guilty of attempted murder in April.

Judge Justice Pepperall said the plastic surgeon, who was absent during the trial on hunger strike, had been on a ‘murderous expedition’ to commit ‘appalling crimes’.

Brooks’s 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 was confronted by Brooks, who had concealed his identity.

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 on April 7 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 was revealed after the jury’s verdict that Brooks went on hunger strike and failed to attend proceedings at Leicester Crown Court.

He was not present during sentencing today because he felt too unwell to make the journey to court.

Judge Justice Pepperall previously said Brooks had ‘used hunger strikes or the threat of some other self-harm to achieve some advantage’ on ‘no fewer than eight occasions’ since 2021.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.