Surgeon is arrested over the stabbing of former consultant
A SURGEON was being held last night on suspicion of stabbing another doctor during a break-in at the victim’s home.
Graeme Perks, 65, was stabbed in the stomach and chest when he went downstairs to investigate the sound of glass smashing in the early hours of Thursday.
Last night Mr Perks, a semi-retired plastic surgeon, remained seriously ill in hospital as detectives continued to question his 55-year- old former NHS colleague, who is also a surgeon.
It is understood that police are investigating the possibility that petrol was poured into Mr Perks’s £800,000 home in Halam, Nottinghamshire, before he disturbed the intruder.
Yesterday police forensic officers were seen going in and out of the £600,000 detached home of the doctor who is being questioned.
A neighbour said the married surgeon’s car had been taken away on a lorry. He added that the suspect had been embroiled in numerous rows with neighbours over boundary disputes and parking in the tight cul- de- sac.
‘Everyone is hoping he pulls through’
Yesterday police also remained stationed outside Mr Perks’s house, a former vicarage on a hill on the edge of the affluent village of Halam.
Glenys Herbert, a villager and local church warden, said former consultant Mr Perks and his wife Beverley, 68, who have four grown up children, open their garden to the public each summer as part of the National Garden Scheme. She described Mr Perks as a ‘lovely person’.
Mrs Herbert added: ‘ Graeme and Beverley have huge French doors at the back of the house, so I wonder if that is how the intruder gained entry?’
A former patient of the victim described him as ‘ charming’, adding: ‘Mr Perks operated on me when I came off my motorbike in 2008. Everyone is hoping he pulls through.’
Mr Perks completed his last NHS patient list in November, although a relative said he still ‘helps out a little bit’ at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.
On Thursday, Nottinghamshire Police said an intruder had ‘ smashed his way inside’ the Perks family home. After stabbing the surgeon, he ran off.
Mr Perks was taken to Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham for surgery.
Detective Inspector Gayle Hart, who is leading the investigation, said: ‘The swift arrest of this suspect we hope will provide some reassurance to local residents. This is a horrific incident which has left a man fighting for his life and his family who were upstairs at the time are extremely shocked and upset by the ordeal.
‘The victim is in the intensive care unit and is currently in a serious but stable condition.
‘ We’re continuing to make inquiries and are not ruling anything out so we would welcome speaking to anyone who may have information which would help with our enquiries, or who may have been a witness.’
Mr Perks remains listed as chairman of the professional standards committee of the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons, and is a two-time former president.
The organisation’s current president, Ruth Waters, told the BBC that colleagues around the world had ‘ expressed their shock at what has happened and also their deep concern for his wellbeing and their hope for his speedy recovery’.
In 2010, Mr Perks was voted among the country’s top breast cancer and reconstructive surgeons in a Daily Mail survey of his peers.