Man convinced he was in ‘Truman Show’ injected food with own blood in shops

A solicitor who ran into three supermarkets and injected food with his own blood in a "bizarre" rampage, believed he was living in the "Truman Show", a jury has heard.

Prosecutors and defence lawyers agreed Leoaai Elghareeb walked into Waitrose, Tesco and Sainsbury's with a bucket-load of syringes and contaminated products including ready meals, apples and chicken tikka fillets on August 25 last year.

The 37-year-old particularly left Sainsbury's customers and staff frightened after he allegedly pushed a security guard in the chest and threw an empty syringe at an NHS surgeon outside of the store.

He has since pleaded not guilty to three counts of contaminating food and two counts of assault by beating by reason of insanity.

He also threw eggs and swore at staff and customers in Sainsbury's, Isleworth Crown Court heard.

A total of 21 syringes were recovered.

At yesterday's hearing, (Feburary 22), a psychiatrist said Elghareeb believed he had a device inserted into his brain and he hoped by behaving rashly would lead to being contacted by "the real police".

He also said that Elghareeb felt he was living in a "Truman Show" simulation where "everything was fake".

Dr Bradley Hillier said: "I don't think he appreciated that he thought it was morally or legally wrong because he psychotically believed that he would get in touch with the real police who would help him to get this implant out of his brain."

The stores were forced to take the precaution of throwing away and destroying all their produce, and restocking, before reopening days later.

This led to costs of £207,000 for Waitrose, £143,000 for Sainsbury's and £117,000 for Tesco.

Kyri Argyropoulos, defending, said to jurors before they went out to decide: "Mr Elghareeb was extremely unwell at the time as you have heard from two consultant psychiatrists."

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He added: "This behaviour was bizarre. It was odd: the syringes, the eggs, the flowerpot.

"You may recall one of the witnesses shouted out, 'are you ok?' Face to face this wasn't a situation of danger of aggression, it was more concern.

"People saw this man, with bags under his eyes, crouching down at the roots of a tree on Fulham Palace road and saw he was not ok.

"This was not the acts of someone who may feel is of a fit and sane mind."

Jurors will continue their deliberations on Thursday where the case is expected to conclude.

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