A plastic surgeon who stabbed his rival and tried to burn down his £1million home to settle a long-running dispute has been struck off.
Jonathan Peter Brooks, 62, who specialised in treating burns, targeted fellow clinician Graeme Perks, 69, at his home in Halam, Nottinghamshire, in January 2021.
The doctor, who worked with the victim at the Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS trust, wanted to settle a ‘professional grudge’ he held against his colleague.
He broke into Mr Perks’ Nottinghamshire house in the middle of the night, wearing a camouflage suit and balaclava and brandishing a crowbar, a tribunal heard.
The doctor doused the property with petrol with the intention of setting it on fire – but was discovered when his colleague heard noise and went downstairs to investigate.
Brooks then took out a knife and stabbed his fellow plastic surgeon multiple times in the stomach, leaving him with severe injuries.
The plastic surgeon was convicted of attempted murder, arson and possession of a knife, and jailed for life with a minimum term of 22 years at Nottingham Crown Court.
He has now also been struck off the doctoral register, at a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) hearing.
Jonathan Peter Brooks (pictured), 62, who specialised in treating burns, targeted fellow clinician Graeme Perks, 69, at his home in Halam, Nottinghamshire, in January 2021
The doctor, who worked with the victim (pictured) at the Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS trust, wanted to settle a ‘professional grudge’ he held against his colleague
Brooks, who qualified as a plastic surgeon in 1988, was working in Nottingham when he ‘executed a premediated plan to murder’ Mr Perks, the panel heard.
In June last year, he was sentenced for two counts of attempted murder, attempted arson with intent to endanger life and possession of a knife in a public place.
He was unrepresented at the MPTS hearing and did not make any written representations.
Adam Birkby, representing the General Medical Council (GMC), said Brooks’ fitness to practice was impaired because of his ‘premeditated, determined and sustained attempt to commit murder to satisfy a professional grudge which caused serious harm to the victim’.
Chairing the tribunal, Sarah Hamilton said: ‘That the Tribunal determined that Mr Brooks’ conduct fell towards the higher end of the spectrum in terms of seriousness and did not find any context that ought properly to be taken into account to reduce current and ongoing risk.
‘He stated that the Tribunal also concluded that Mr Brooks had not shown any insight into his behaviour, had not demonstrated any remediation, nor had he shown any remorse.
‘Mr Birkby stated that the Tribunal had concluded there was a current and ongoing risk to public protection, that all three parts of public protection were engaged and that the level of risk is high.’
The dispute between the two clinicians emerged after Mr Perks participated in long-running disciplinary proceedings against Brooks at their workplace.
Brooks, of Southwell, Nottinghamshire, was filmed leaving his home in the middle of the night on his bicycle before he travelled a mile to his ‘hated’ colleague’s home.
The father-of-four smashed his way in through the conservatory before pouring petrol around the foot of the staircase of the country home.
But he was soon confronted by a naked Mr Perks, who had been woken by the sound of smashing glass.
Brooks attacked his colleague, leaving the ex-president of the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons with his ‘guts sticking out’.
Leicester Crown Court heard in June last year that Mr Perks lost ten pints of blood and was placed in a medically induced coma.
He only survived thanks to the ‘quick action and amazing surgical skill’ of medics.
In a statement read out in court, Mr Perks said he had ‘no hard feelings or bitterness’ following the incident.
He remarked: ‘It’s ironic that a burns surgeon should wish to immolate our family.’
Jurors deliberated for more than 12 hours before finding Brooks guilty.
Sentencing, Mr Justice Pepperall told him: ‘You must have had substantial professional experience of treating those who have suffered appalling and painful burns, and yet you attempted to set a fire in the middle of the night intending to kill your former colleague and to endanger the lives of any other occupants as they lay sleeping in their beds.’
The judge said he stabbed Mr Perks with ‘murderous intent’ and described the victim as a ‘deeply impressive man’.
He added: ‘It’s a mark of the man that he bears you no ill feeling, hatred or bitterness.
‘Your actions have caused substantial psychological trauma to the Perks family and you invaded the safety of their home.’
The judge added: ‘You were fixated on your employment difficulties and whatever the rights and wrongs of those difficulties you blamed Mr Perks for your troubles.
‘I’m sure your simmering sense of grievance towards Mr Perks developed into deep anger.’
The judge said that if the fuel he splashed around the Perks’ home had been lit, it would have caused a ‘very intense fire’.
He added the case was ‘exceptionally unusual in many ways’ and said it showed a ‘sustained and determined attempt to commit murder.’
Brooks was judged a serious danger to members of the public, in particular Mr Perks.
He was sentenced to life in prison, with his minimum 22-year term reduced by the time he served on remand.
The surgeon had already spent four years, four months and 22 days behind bars at the time so the adjusted minimum term was 17 years and 223 days.
He also granted a restraining order banning Brooks from contacting the Perks family or going into their home village of Halam until further notice.
Mr Perks did not attend court, with victim impact statements read out on behalf of him and his family.
He said in the statements: ‘This event was an unimaginable catastrophe for two families but a nightmare for my wife Beverley and son Henry, who must have wondered if I was going to survive.
‘Bev is a very resilient farmer’s daughter who tackles anything, but this has been beyond every struggle in our lives so far.’
He broke into Mr Perks’ Nottinghamshire house in the middle of the night, wearing a camouflage suit (pictured) and balaclava and brandishing a crowbar, a tribunal heard
The doctor doused the property (pictured) with petrol with the intention of setting it on fire – but was discovered when his colleague heard noise and went downstairs to investigate
Brooks (pictured) then took out a knife and stabbed his fellow plastic surgeon multiple times in the stomach, leaving him with severe injuries
Mr Perks told how the family had to move out of the house for three months due to fuel contamination and due to restoration work.
He added that while he was in hospital, he was initially unable to see his family due to coronavirus pandemic restrictions.
The clinician spent 23 days in a major trauma unit where he said everyone he came into contact with had ‘such generous spirit that my recovery was made easier.’
He had to learn how to walk again and said while he can remember little of the incident, his wife believes he is now more disinhibited than he used to be.
Mr Perks has also been left with a three-inch scar under his right ribs from the stabbing and a ten-inch scar across his abdomen from surgery.
He added: ‘It’s impossible to explain why I have been so lucky. I have no hard feelings or bitterness and derive no satisfaction from [Brooks’] conviction.
‘It’s just another interesting chapter of life and I wish [Brooks’] family well. It’s ironic that a burns surgeon should wish to immolate our family.
‘This has been for me (but definitely not our family) emotionally, a life-enhancing experience, due to the amazing human beings, professionals, friends and extended family, who came to our help. Most importantly our family who came together in an unforeseeable crisis.’
He described the period before the stabbing as his ‘first life’: ‘A “second life” is a rare gift and richly treasured every day.’
Mr Perks said fluid retention caused him to temporarily gain 23kg in weight, going from a 33-inch waist to 44inches.
Complications from his injuries and treatment have left him exhausted when climbing stairs and he has been prescribed life-long blood-thinning medication.
In his victim impact statement, Mr Perks said before the stabbing, he was ‘healthy, fit for 65 years, took no regular medication, and had a body with no surgical scarring’.
On top of his scars, he said he also now has a range of other health complications, including ‘abnormal veins’ after a post-surgery blockage.
He also now suffers mild chronic swelling in his legs, which he has to manage by wearing support stockings ‘all-day, every day’.
Mr Perks had retired from the NUH NHS trust a month before he was attacked.
But he had agreed a ‘flexible contract’ to work at a hospital elsewhere in the county, and also planned to continue with some private medical work.
He was eventually unable to undertake either due to ‘the events and my recovery’.
Mr Perks said while in hospital, he suffered ‘distressing hallucinations about house fires and being unable to reach my family’.
He now checks every door and window of their home is locked each night.
The clinician added: ‘One of the most upsetting experiences has been well-meaning people stopping us or my wife to ask, “How are you Graeme?”, or, “How is Graeme?” without realising that Bev has had a worse time.’
Mrs Perks, a retired nurse, said her medical experience meant she knew instantly ‘how close [Mr Perks] was to death as he collapsed in front of Henry and I’.
She added: ‘Now I worry about his life-changing injuries and whether he will recover fully.’
Mrs Perks described the ordeal as a ‘hideous experience’ which had knocked her confidence.
She added: ‘Intrusive thoughts still wake me – such as what would have happened if Graeme or any of us had been doused in fuel?
‘I recall vividly the inescapable smell of fuel, and then the fear and distress sets in.
‘Ugly thoughts engulf me as I dwell on the, “What ifs?”, such as what would have happened if the fuel had ignited.’
Addressing the judge on Brooks’ level of dangerousness, prosecutor Tracy Ayling KC said he shows no remorse and continues to pose a risk to the Perks family.
She said Brooks has a ‘history of being manipulative’ and there was ample evidence that he ‘refuses to cooperate with those with whom he disagrees’.
Ms Ayling added: ‘In relation to the attempted arson, there was a degree of planning…use of an accelerant and multiple people were endangered.’
After the verdicts, Nottinghamshire Police released CCTV footage showing the shamed surgeon wheeling his bicycle out of the garage before pedalling away.
The footage, from a neighbour’s security camera in the minster town of Southwell, Nottinghamshire, then showed Brooks returning home after the attack.
It pictured him opening his garage to place the bicycle back inside.
Brooks, of Southwell, Nottinghamshire, was filmed leaving his home in the middle of the night on his bicycle before he travelled a mile to his ‘hated’ colleague’s home (pictured, attended by police after the attack)
The father-of-four smashed his way in through the conservatory before pouring petrol around the foot of the staircase of the country home. Pictured: The container of fuel later found in Brooks’s bike pannier
But he was soon confronted by a naked Mr Perks, who had been woken by the sound of smashing glass. Pictured: Matches and a lighter later found in Brooks’ bike pannier
CCTV footage, from a neighbour’s security camera in the minster town of Southwell, Nottinghamshire, then showed Brooks returning home after the attack, before opening his garage to put away his bicycle (pictured)
Neighbours told the Daily Mail at the time they had endured a succession of complaints from Brooks over building works or boundary issues over the years.
One described the surgeon as ‘a man on the edge’.
Brooks, who goes by his middle name, joined the burns unit at City Hospital, Nottingham, in 2008.
In 2013, he made headlines for the right reasons when he was lauded for becoming the first surgeon to treat a burns victim with Botox.
But by then he was already embroiled in workplace disputes which in 2015 saw him ‘excluded’ from the wards.
It came after the NUH NHS Trust said colleagues were unable to work with him.
Brooks went to tribunal, claiming his line manager Mr Perks had negotiated a ‘job plan’ which let him ‘maximise his private sector income’ to the detriment of NHS patients.
He claimed the burns service was left ‘short of resources’ and that a ‘lack of adequate medical cover’ caused him concern over patient safety.
Brooks alleged he had been effectively suspended for whistleblowing, but ultimately lost his case, and with it a claim for £500,000 compensation.
During his trial, prosecutor Ms Ayling said Brooks’ ‘attempt to get [Mr Perks] out of the way’ came just three days after the start of the final stage of disciplinary proceedings against the defendant – which were likely to see him dismissed.
The court heard statements from Mr Perks formed part of the evidence in those proceedings, which Brooks had tried and failed to get postponed.
Ms Ayling said Brooks was clearly ‘frustrated’ by the disciplinary proceedings and ‘made a conscious decision to take the law into his own hands.’
She told jurors his intention was ‘to break into Mr Perks house, set fire to it and if necessary, stab Mr Perks’.
The prosecutor added: ‘In short, he intended to kill Mr Perks by either or both those means. The use of fire, or the use of a knife.’
Mr Perks, then 65, his wife, and son Henry, 29, were sleeping upstairs at the house and the staircase was their only means of escape, jurors heard.
Ms Ayling said a ‘fire raging downstairs and on the stairs’ would have stopped them escaping.
Mr Perks was stabbed through the abdomen and taken to hospital after he was found by his wife and Royal Engineer Commando son, who was home on leave at the time.
A doctor who operated on him at Nottingham’s Queens Medical Centre told the court the injury would have been fatal in 95 per cent of cases.
Brooks was arrested later that morning after being discovered asleep and bleeding from the hand on a bench in a communal garden in nearby town Southwell.
When interviewed under caution, he gave no comment answers to every question.
Brooks was linked to the scene by a blood deposit in the Perks family’s conservatory and on the crowbar he used to force entry.
His blood was also found on the handle of the knife used in the attack, and on his garage door – where detectives found the container of petrol in his bicycle pannier, matches and a lighter.
An earlier trial was halted in summer 2022 when Brooks developed medical complications from previous radiotherapy treatment.
In a ruling ahead of the trial, Mr Justice Pepperall said Brooks’ defence case admitted he had set Mr Perks home alight before stabbing him.
The ruling also documented that Brooks’ case was that his mental health was ‘on the edge’ after years of deterioration.
It added: ‘He blames the sustained and deliberate use of disciplinary processes to drive him out of his NHS Trust or to make him insane so that he could be dismissed.’
A psychiatrist who examined Brooks last year in the build-up to the trial found he ‘showed features of a disordered personality with predominant narcissistic and dissocial traits along with paranoia’.
Dr Simon Gibbon, a consultant psychiatrist who assessed Brooks in prison on behalf of the defence, agreed with other clinicians who concluded the defendant was on the autism spectrum but believed in the shamed surgeon’s case it was mild autism.
He concluded Brooks continues to pose a high risk of violence.
After his conviction, it could be revealed the ‘narcissistic’ medic had continually attempted to derail legal proceedings since the attack.
Brooks continually sacked lawyers, went on hunger strike or refused to co-operate with prison staff.
It caused the trial to be rescheduled nine times, before a series of judges, before he was eventually brought to justice.
Leicester Crown Court heard in June last year that Mr Perks (pictured) lost ten pints of blood after the attack and was placed in a medically induced coma
Brooks (pictured) was jailed for life with a minimum term of 22 years – and has also now been struck off the doctoral register, at a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) hearing
He sacked his latest legal team in February last year, then went on hunger strike and failed to attend the trial, which took place in Loughborough.
Brooks – who is now virtually bedbound – had previously vowed to a psychiatrist he would starve himself to death if he was convicted.
The court heard Brooks, who had no previous convictions, was eating and drinking normally in prison at the time of his sentencing in June last year.
The disgraced surgeon did not attend court, with his barrister Stephen Leslie KC telling Mr Justice Pepperall he ‘had an infection and he had indicated… that the journey would make him ill’.
At the end of the trial in April last year, the judge said he would require Brooks to attend the sentencing.
He wrote to the governor at HMP Norwich ‘to indicate that steps should be taken to secure attendance’.
The court heard a warrant was issued for his production to attend and prison healthcare workers assessed him as being fit to attend court.
But the judge was told Brooks insisted he had a bedsore on his bottom that made it impossible to sit for long periods and still refused to attend.
The defendant instead watched via videolink, sat hunched over in a chair and occasionally pacing around the small prison conference room before returning to his seat.
His lawyer Mr Leslie told the court at sentencing his client had planned the attack ‘to some degree’.
Referring to the fact Brooks cycled to Mr Perks’ home with a can of petrol in his pannier, and armed with a crowbar, matches and a knife, he said Brooks was ‘interested in motorbikes’.
He add: ‘People do carry petroleum in their garage.
‘There’s nothing there that was taken that would not otherwise be in an ordinary garage of somebody interested in motorbikes.’
He added: ‘This was a single occasion of violence.
‘Although he does not have a recollection [of the attack], he accepts that he may have done things that were not appropriate’.
The judge replied that was hardly a show of ‘fulsome remorse’.
Concluding his mitigation, Mr Leslie said Brooks, a former school governor who had worked with Medicines Sans Frontiers in Haiti, Gaza and Sri Lanka, had ‘done a lot of good in the world and has helped many people’.
Mr Leslie added: ‘He should be punished, and seriously punished for this, but he should also be provided with a chance to reform himself. There is still good in him.’
Detective Inspector Matt Scott, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: ‘This was a vicious and calculating attack that very nearly cost a wholly innocent man his life.
‘Our contention has always been that Brooks set off that morning with a very clear intention in mind – to fatally injure his victim.
‘I am pleased that – having heard all the available evidence – the trial jury agreed and hope that today’s verdict provides at least some degree of comfort to the victim and his family.
‘Over the last four years he and his family have been through an extremely distressing ordeal and I would like to thank them for the enormous courage and dignity they have shown throughout this process.’
Sam Shallow, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: ‘Peter Brooks committed an act of extreme violence, attempting to murder a highly respected colleague.
‘This was a planned, calculated attack, in which Brooks showed he was determined to kill his former colleague.
‘Since committing these atrocious acts, Brooks has sought to evade responsibility. He has requested late adjournments, dispensed with his legal team, and used his health to avoid proper progress of the court proceedings.
‘On each of the nine occasions the case has been listed at court, the prosecution team has been ready. Justice has now caught up with Brooks.
‘His victim was fortunate to escape with his life and his whole family were in danger from Brooks’ inexplicable actions.
‘Despite the physical and emotional trauma they have endured, they have come to court to tell their story on two separate occasions.
‘This has been a long process for them, but I hope that finally seeing these proceedings coming to a close will help them in their recovery from this ordeal.’
The NUH NHS trust has been contacted for comment.
