NHS worker gave shop owner 'lethal' injection then watched from his car as drug kicked in

A MIDDLESBROUGH NHS worker who tried to kill a record shop owner by injecting him with a lung-stopping drug in an "entirely motiveless" attack, has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 16 years.

- By KATIE DICKINSON, PA

Darren Harris, 58, spent several hours posing as a customer in Gary Lewis's vinyl store before waiting until his back was turned and stabbing him in the thigh with a hypodermic syringe, in July last year.

Leeds Crown Court heard Mr Lewis's life was saved only by a slight delay in the onset of the drug, allowing him to follow Harris out of the shop in Northallerton, where a friend saw him collapse and went to help.

Harris, of Amesbury Crescent, Hemlington, Middlesbrough, sat several feet away in his car, watching Mr Lewis, then 65, go into respiratory arrest "as if he was watching a TV show,’ a judge heard.

Yesterday, Harris was jailed for life with a minimum term of 16 years after being found guilty of attempted murder in March. He did not give evidence during his trial.