Solicitor who injected food at Tesco, Sainsbury’s & Waitrose with his own BLOOD denies guilt by reason of insanity
A SOLICITOR who injected his own blood into supermarket food and caused millions of pounds worth of loss denied his guilt by claiming he is insane.
Leoaai Elghareeb, 37, has denied carrying a black bucket of syringes and throwing them at people outside and inside a Waitrose, Tesco and Sainsbury’s in West London last year.
He is also accused of throwing a syringe of blood at an NHS doctor in the street during his alleged rampage on August 25 on Fulham Palace Road.
Jurors at Isleworth Crown Court were shown CCTV footage of Elghareeb deliberately injecting syringes in to apples, packets of chicken tikka fillets, and ready meals in the three supermarkets.
At a Sainsbury’s store he threw eggs and swore at staff and customers, before reportedly pushing a security guard in the chest.
Officers arrested Elghareed outside of a pub shortly after he threw a plant pot through an open door, with 21 syringes being discovered.
A Waitrose worker also told the court that the week prior to the incident he had seen the solicitor “smelling packaging” at the store.
All of the stores were forced to take the precaution of throwing away and destroying all their produce, and restocking, before reopening days later.
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This led to costs of £207,000 for Waitrose, £143,000 for Sainsbury’s and £117,000 for Tesco.
Elghareeb denied today three counts of contaminating food with the intent to cause the public alarm, anxiety or injury and two counts of assault by beating.
Prosecutor Philip Stott told the court said: “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 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.
“As he was confronted, because of his actions, by a succession of store personnel inside the supermarkets he assaulted one of them by pushing him, in addition to throwing verbal insults at those around him.”
Waitrose worker George Bruce recalled Elghareeb throwing things in his direction who looked “very tired” like he “hadn’t slept for days.
Customers then came over to bring to staff attention that needles were sticking out of food, leading to managers evacuating the store.
Security guard Bilal Ansari, who works for Sainsbury’s, claims that Elghareeb called him “vile” and also shouted that “Sainsbury is vile”.
He also witnessed him screaming “why are you looking at me you fat b***h” before throwing an egg at the customer.
Dr Meghana Kulkarni had been walking towards the River Thames when Elghareeb was walking towards her, before throwing the plastic syringe at her chest.
‘DISEASE OF THE MIND’
Mr Stott added: “He then went into a branch of Little Waitrose, located at 201-2017 Fulham Palace Road. He began to throw syringes and also to stick them into the packets of food there.
“Once staff realised what had happened, they told everyone to drop their shopping and leave, and then closed the store.
“A number of syringes filled with blood were recovered from the branch, some of which were found on the floor, and some of were sticking into packets of food, for example apples and a packet of chicken tikka fillets.
“After he left Waitrose, the defendant continued north along Fulham Palace Road and straight into a branch of Sainsbury’s Local.
“He carried out the same action, throwing syringes and sticking them into produce inside the store.
“The defendant pushed one of the security guards on his chest. That was Mr Bilal Ansari.
“Again, staff closed the store and found syringes on the floor and into items like packets of meat and ready meals.
“As you would expect Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Tesco thoroughly searched their stores and then had them deep-cleaned before they were able to reopen.
Jurors were told while it is agreed Elghareeb carried out the actions on 25 August 2021, and he is fit to stand trial now, the defence will say he was “suffering from a disease of the mind so as not to know what he was doing was wrong.”
Elghareeb, wearing a grey prison-issue tracksuit and glasses, only spoke during arraignment to confirm his name and to enter his five pleas of not guilty to contaminating food and assault.
He repeatedly shook his leg during the hearing but did not show any other emotion.
The trial continues.