'Syringe attack ordeal not over until I know why I was targeted'

A record shop owner who suffered a cardiac arrest after being stabbed with a syringe full of a powerful muscle relaxant says he fears he may never know why he was attacked.

Gary Lewis, 65, almost died when he was injected with rocuronium by 58-year-old nurse Darren Harris at Betterdaze in Northallerton on 2 July last year.

Harris, who was found guilty of attempted murder after a trial at Leeds Crown Court and was sentenced earlier to life with a minimum term of 16 years, offered no explanation for the attack.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Lewis said: "It leaves you with the quandary, sometimes bordering on paranoia, about why somebody would go to those lengths."

On the day of the attack Harris travelled from his home in Middlesbrough, where he worked as a nurse at James Cook Hospital, to Northallerton, where he stabbed Mr Lewis in the backside before leaving the shop.

Mr Lewis said he had followed Harris outside to confront him, but collapsed a short time later.

CCTV footage shows him leaving the shop to remonstrate with Harris, before neighbouring shopkeepers come to his assistance and police arrive to detain Harris.

"Apparently I died on the footpath, my heart stopped on the footpath," he said.

"I regained consciousness and they tell me I had a second cardiac arrest in the ambulance."

Mr Lewis said he had been told it was his decision to leave the shop, which he puts down to his training during 30 years in the police force, that saved his life.

"The doctors are absolutely certain," he said.

"If I'd stayed where I was I would have had the heart attack without anyone being around me and the next person to walk in the shop would have found me."

When Harris was arrested he repeatedly claimed the syringe had been full of water, but it was later found to have been filled with rocuronium.

Harris did not give evidence during his trial but in a police interview he claimed he had been pushed out of the shop by Mr Lewis following an argument.

CCTV footage showed no such altercation took place and no other motive for the attack has been put forward.

Mr Lewis said: "Nobody in the family can get their head around it. It's baffled the police, it's baffled the barristers, it's baffled the court, it's probably baffled the hospital.

"I'm not going to plead with the guy, but if he's got any humanity he will give me an explanation.

"It wasn't random, it couldn't have been more deliberate and targeted. Whether I'll ever find out, I almost have to deal with the possibility that I might not and that is psychologically impacting."

Mr Lewis said he was back at work within days of the attack, but said he had struggled with the idea that had he not made it out of the shop his heart attack might never have been revealed as attempted murder.

"The drug clears your system, which is why I would have died if I'd stayed in the shop," he said.

"It would have disappeared and nobody would have looked for a pin prick, it would have been put down as a cardiac arrest.

"But the psychology of it, there can't be many victims of such a crime who have to return to the scene of the crime every single day and sit in the same seat where you were attacked.

"I do not think it will ever be over and done with unless I am given a reason and I can't imagine what that reason would be.

"You rack your brains but you've almost got to not think about it too much because I may never get an explanation."

South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said Harris' employment was terminated in August 2024.

It said a review into the storage of medications, including controlled drugs, in cardiac theatres and general theatres was carried out in light of the incident and concluded "all theatres were fully compliant with national guidance".

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