The ‘dangerous, remorseless' surgeon sentenced to life

HE COMMITTED ‘EXTREME VIOLENCE' AS HE TRIED TO KILL EX-COLLEAGUE

- By STEPHANIE WAREHAM

A PLASTIC surgeon who stabbed a fellow doctor after trying to set fire to his house because he wanted him “out of the way” has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 22 years.

Peter Brooks, 61, knifed Graeme Perks and doused the ground floor of his house with petrol with intent to set it on fire after cycling to the property in Halam, near Southwell, in the early hours of January 14, 2021.

Jailing him at Leicester Crown Court, sitting in Loughborough, yesterday, Judge Mr Justice Pepperall said Brooks had committed “appalling” crimes after setting off from his home on a “murderous expedition”.

Brooks, who was “voluntarily absent” from his month-long trial because he was on hunger strike and said he would “rather be dead than incarcerated”, did not appear in person for the sentencing yesterday after refusing to leave his cell.

Stephen Leslie KC, defending, said Brooks had said he was too unwell to make the journey to court and instead listened to proceedings via video link from Norwich Prison.

Mr Justice Pepperall previously told the court that on “no fewer than eight occasions” since 2021 Brooks, formerly of Landseer Road, Southwell, had “used hunger strikes or the threat of some other self-harm to achieve some advantage”.

Brooks’ convictions followed a four-year series of legal hearings, including a mistrial and seven other aborted trial dates.

The consultant, specialising in burns and plastics, was convicted in April of two counts of attempted murder, one for the intended use of fire and the other for the stabbing, attempted arson with intent to endanger life, and possession of a knife in a public place.