This is the moment a solicitor injected food with his blood as he strolled through a Sainsbury’s Local in west London during a rampage which cost £500,000.
Leoaai Elghareeb, 37, walked into three supermarkets carrying a bucketful of hypodermic needles before jabbing at random products on August 25 last year.
Today a jury at Isleworth Crown Court was shown CCTV of Elghareeb entering the Sainsbury’s Local in Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, between 7pm and 8pm.
The footage showed Elghareeb, wearing an American sports-style t-shirt and shorts, stride towards the ready meal section before jabbing food with a syringe.
It then shows him walking over to the next section, eyeing up further products while holding what appears to be another syringe in his mouth, before injecting more food.
Elghareeb also made his way into Tesco Express and Little Waitrose before police were called to reports of a man throwing blood-filled syringes and eggs.
The three supermarkets had to throw away all of their products as a precaution, causing nearly £500,000 in losses.
It is agreed that Elghareeb committed the offences but his defence is that, in the legal sense, he was insane at the time of the incident.
He denies three counts of contaminating goods and two counts of assault in relation to throwing a needle at Dr Meghana Kulkarni and pushing security guard Bilal Ansari in the chest.
Elghareeb shown on CCTV picking up a food product before injecting it inside a Sainsbury’s Local
Elghareeb, dressed in a black American sports t-shirt and shorts, shown on CCTV with what appears to be a syringe in his mouth
As he assaulted Mr Ansari, Elghareeb allegedly shouted: ‘You are all vile people and Sainsbury’s is vile.’
Dr Bradley Hillier, a consultant forensic psychiatrist, told the court today that Elghareeb was ‘severely psychotic’ at the time and could not appreciate that his actions were ‘legally and morally wrong’.
He said: ‘He was not thinking straight. He was in a situation where he was trying to escape this worth that the psychosis had created for him.
‘He was so burdened and tortured, is the word he used.’
Judge Alistair Hammerton today sent out the jury to consider its verdicts.
Yesterday, prosecutor Philip Stott detailed the events leading up to Elghareeb’s arrest.
He said: ‘In short what happened is this: in the early evening of a late summer’s day last year, Mr Elghareeb walked down the Fulham Palace Road in West London carrying a bucket. It was filled with syringes, some of which had hypodermic needles attached.
‘A number of those syringes were filled with blood – his own. Mr Elghareeb then entered, in turn, three supermarkets on the Fulham Palace Road – in order: they were Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Tesco – and he proceeded to stick those syringes in food products inside those branches of those supermarkets.
‘Along the way he also threw some of the syringes at people inside and outside the store including hitting a passerby on the street.’
Elghareeb reaching for another food product inside the Sainsbury’s Local in Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith
The solicitor is standing trial at Isleworth Crown Court charged with three counts of contaminating goods and two counts of assault
It is agreed that Elghareeb committed the offences but his defence is, in the legal sense, that he was insane at the time of the incident
As Elghareeb walked down Fulham Palace Road he stared at Dr Kulkarni, causing her to feel ‘uncomfortable as he seemed aggressive’, Mr Stott said.
As she passed him in the street, he threw a syringe at her which hit her in the chest, the court heard.
Dr Kulkarni started speaking to other people on the street who were picking up syringes off the floor, before calling police.
When staff were alerted, they asked all customers to drop their shopping and evacuate the stores.
Shortly before he was arrested, he walked past a Tapas bar called Avanti and threw a plant pot through the open door, narrowly missing a waiter, the court heard.
The three supermarkets found a total of 21 syringes during a thorough search and deep-clean before they were able to reopen.
A black plastic syringe box was also recovered from Fulham Palace Road by police officers.
Elghareeb, of Crabtree Lane, Fulham, denies three counts of contaminating goods and two counts of assault.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10539255/Moment-solicitor-37-injected-food-blood-west-London-Sainsburys-Local.html
