Doctor ‘stabbed by fellow surgeon’ felt intestines bulging out, trial told

A doctor alleged to have been attacked by a fellow plastic surgeon has told a jury how he was stabbed by a “figure” in darkness outside his conservatory, and then clutched his abdomen to feel his intestines bulging out.

Graeme Perks was questioned on Tuesday by a KC appointed to avoid him being cross-examined by Peter Brooks, who denies attempted murder, attempted arson with intent to endanger life, and unlawful possession of a knife.

Jurors sitting at Loughborough Courthouse have heard that Mr Perks suffered “extremely life-threatening” injuries to his liver, intestines and pancreas in the early hours of January 14 2021 after being confronted by an intruder at his home in Halam, near Southwell, Nottinghamshire.

Giving evidence to the court, Mr Perks denied that he had picked up a crowbar before his assailant, whom he wrongly mistook for his youngest son, turned and stabbed him.

During more than an hour of questioning by Stephen Leslie KC, Mr Perks said he believed he encountered the intruder on a lawned area behind the conservatory, where the doors had been smashed, as his feet were “stood in something damp”.

“My interpretation was that that was the wet grass in the dark,” he said. “I have no recollection of walking across the broken glass.”

Agreeing with Mr Leslie that he had been stabbed outside, had turned and then had a blank in his memory, Mr Perks said: “I was confused about the events going on.

“I was confused about the sequence of events and why I was outside with a figure who to me I thought was probably my youngest son because he was the same physique.”

Mr Leslie told jurors that Mr Perks’ DNA was found on a blue crowbar by a forensic scientist, along with an unidentified finger mark.

Asked by the barrister if he recalled having picked up the crowbar before he went outside, Mr Perks said: “No. I have never seen that crowbar in my life.

“I have no recollection of that crowbar.”

Providing further details of the night Brooks is alleged to have tried to kill him, Mr Perks added: “I realised something was seriously amiss.

“I found this figure outside. I came upon a figure at the back, facing towards me on the grass. I don’t know whether the figure was stationary or moving.”

Estimating that the figure was around 2-3 feet away at the time he suffered a knife wound, Mr Perks told the court: “I didn’t know I had been stabbed. I made a deduction.

I think I turned back to the house. My recollection is that my bare hands grasped the area of the blow and felt the bulge

“I have no recollection of the knife or the crowbar. My recollection is all I felt was guts sticking out.”

Mr Leslie asked Mr Perks: “The fact is you were so discombobulated at that stage you actually believed that it was (the youngest son) that had done this wicked act?”

Mr Perks, who was aged 65 at the time of the attack and had only recently retired, replied: “Correct.”

Under further questioning by prosecutor Tracy Ayling KC, Mr Perks was asked if he had anything in his hands when he went to feel his wounds.

Mr Perks answered: “I think I turned back to the house. My recollection is that my bare hands grasped the area of the blow and felt the bulge.

“Sadly I am experienced enough to recognise that it was intestine.”

A consultant surgeon who operated to treat Mr Perks’ injuries at Nottingham’s Queen’s Medical Centre said the wounds to the victim’s organs were “way up in the most serious” category of those he had treated, with a 95% chance of death.

The court heard 40 units of blood and blood product were used to treat Mr Perks, who lost an estimated six litres of blood.

The court has heard that the defendant, formerly of Landseer Road, Southwell, has chosen not to attend his trial and not to have legal representation.

Prosecutors say the 61-year-old doused the ground floor of Mr Perks’ property in petrol before knifing his former colleague, who he “hated” because he was giving evidence in a work disciplinary hearing against the defendant.

The trial continues.