Case against lawyer, 37, accused of injecting food with his blood at Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose COLLAPSES after the jury failed to reach verdicts
- Leoaai Elghareeb, 37, will face retrial after Isleworth jury failed to reach a verdict
- Solicitor had jabbed supermarket products using syringes filled with his blood
- Tesco Express, Sainsbury’s Local and Little Waitrose all discarded £500k stock
- While it was agreed Elghareeb committed the offences, his barrister argued he was criminally insane at the time he carried out the bizarre acts
A lawyer who is accused of injecting food with his blood at a series of supermarkets in a £500,000 rampage will face a retrial after the jury failed to reach verdicts today.
The court heard that Leoaai Elghareeb, 37, wandered into three stores on Fulham Palace Road carrying a bucketful of hypodermic needles as he jabbed at products, including Chicken Tikka Fillets, last August.
The solicitor also allegedly threw a syringe at a doctor but luckily it bounced off her causing no injuries.
The three supermarkets – Sainsbury’s Local, Tesco Express and Little Waitrose – had to throw away all their products as a precaution, causing nearly £500,000 in losses last August 25.
Elghareeb denied three counts of contaminating goods and two counts of assault and the jury at Isleworth Crown Court failed to reach verdicts following more than seven hours of deliberations.
‘Insane’ lawyer Leoaai Elghareeb, 37, injected food with his blood at a series of supermarkets in a £500,000 rampage, a court heard
Shocking CCTV footage played to jurors this week showed Elghareeb entering the Sainsbury’s Local in Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, between 7pm and 8pm.
Wearing an American sports top and Nike shorts, he strides towards the ready meal section before dramatically 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 is also accused of assaulting Dr Meghana Kulkarni by throwing a needle at her and pushing security guard Bilal Ansari in the chest while shouting: ‘You are all vile people and Sainsbury’s is vile.’
Leoaai Elghareeb (right) is accused of wandering into three stores on Fulham Palace Road carrying a bucketful of hypodermic needles as he jabbed at products, including Chicken Tikka Fillets, last August.
Elghareeb is shown on CCTV picking up a food product before allegedly injecting it inside a Sainsbury’s Local
Forensic teams are pictured inside the Tesco store shortly after the rampage
After deliberating for seven hours and 20 minutes Judge Alistair Hammerton discharged them from reaching a verdict and Elghareeb’s retrial was set for May 3.
Elghareeb, of Crabtree Lane, Fulham, denies three counts of contaminating goods and two counts of assault.He appeared in court wearing a grey prison tracksuit and dark-rimmed glasses.
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