Bloodstains at accused’s home
MURDER CALLED 999 AFTER FINDING MARKS ON TOWELS, SWITCHES AND IN GARAGE, COURT TOLD
WIFE OF DOCTOR ON TRIAL FOR ATTEMPTED
THE 999 call from the wife of a doctor accused of the attempted murder of a colleague revealed she saw blood in various locations as she reported him missing to a emergency call operator.
Joanne Brooks noticed blood on the floor, hand towels and light switches, her husband’s trial heard at Nottingham Crown Court on Monday.
Mrs Brooks said there had been a disciplinary hearing at her husband’s work and, “there is a high level of stress”, she could be heard saying on the recording of her phone call to emergency services.
Her depressed husband, Jonathan Peter Brooks, who goes by his middle name of Peter, had gone missing some time overnight.
Dr Brooks, a consultant surgeon with a specialism in burns and plastics, did not take any vehicles and his wife thought he had gone for an early morning walk, but that was not the case. There was blood in the garage, he had not taken his wallet or phone and, “I am concerned,” she said.
After calling King’s Mill Hospital, in Sutton-in-ashfield, and Nottingham’s Queen’s Medical Centre, she established he had not been admitted. “We don’t have any family in the area and he has not been seeing his friends for a long time. He is a doctor by profession and has been incredibly safe during Covid. Obviously my concern is he has hurt himself and taken himself off somewhere”.
Giving a description of Dr Brooks, aged 56, of Landseer Road, Southwell, she said he was six-foot, one inch in height, of heavy build, and has a number-one crop on his grey hair, a scar on his neck, brown eyes and no glasses.
He had not been working as a doctor at the QMC for six years. He was registered as an employee but had been suspended for 18 months.
As Mrs Brooks was on the phone, the operator got a report of an incident in Southwell where a male had been found asleep and said he was
“a doctor and was going to lose his job”.
The caller was signposted to ring 111 or an ambulance and that was at about 8am on January 14, 2021. An officer had been sent to the Brooks’ address to do a search. The jury have heard Dr Brooks was found asleep on a bench and taken to hospital where he was arrested and photographs taken of his cut right hand. The defendant is alleged to have tried to kill colleague Graeme Perks in the early hours after Mr Perks had provided statements to a lockdown disciplinary hearing against Dr Brooks. It is alleged the defendant “hated” Mr Perks, who he is alleged to have stabbed at his family home in Halam Hill, Halam. The defendant, who is representing himself at trial, pleads not guilty to attempted murder, attempted arson with intent to endanger the lives of Graeme, his wife Beverley and son Henry Perks, and possession of a knife in a public place. The trial continues.
Obviously my concern is he has hurt himself and taken himself off somewhere.
Joanne Brooks’ 999 call