Manchester GP attacker did not ‘wound with intent’, rules jury

A disturbed patient who attacked a doctor and a member of staff at a Manchester GP practice when he couldn’t get an appointment has been cleared of wounding with intent following a trial.

But Olumuiwa Oduntan, 61, has admitted causing grievous bodily harm and will be sentenced in May. His trial heard he hit a doctor and member of staff with a metal barrier pole at his GP surgery when he couldn’t get an appointment for a repeat prescription.

The incident left a GP and a member of staff unconscious, with the GP suffering fractures to his spine and the front of his skull.

Last week, the prosecutor argued that use of a chrome barrier as a weapon is ‘clear evidence’ that the defendant intended to cause ‘really serious harm’ to the GP practice staff.

Mr Oduntan denied three counts of wounding with intent and yesterday the jury acquitted him of those charges following the trial.

The court heard he has a type of schizophrenia and had not had his medication for a week up to the incident. When questioned by his barrister, Mr Oduntan said the GP practice staff ‘were supposed to help him’.

Jurors were told Mr Oduntan had pleaded guilty to an offence of affray, three offences of causing grievous bodily harm and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Her honour Judge Joanne Woodward told the defendant: ‘You have been acquitted of the three counts you faced at the trial… You will be sentenced for the other matters on May 23.’

Mr Oduntan was remanded in custody until the sentencing hearing.

Ahead of the incident, Mr Oduntan had repeatedly called Florence House GP surgery in Openshaw, Manchester, the jurors were told.

When he was told there were no appointments available, he is alleged to have said: ‘Tell you what, I’m coming down there now, I better get arrested today, I want to speak to a doctor.’

Mr Oduntan arrived at the surgery 15 minutes later, jurors were told.

Prosecutors said he became ‘angry’ and was alleged to have said: ‘F***ing call the police and get me arrested.’

The receptionist and another member of staff said they were going to call the police but he picked up a metal post and smashed the screen at the front desk, the jury at Minshull Street Crown Court heard.

‘He then jumped over the desk carrying the barrier, then used it to attack members of staff. He struck the lady over the head with the barrier, knocking her unconscious,’ prosecutor Jonathan Savage said.

Mr Savage continued: ‘One of the doctors [Dr Shabbir Ahmed] came out to see what the commotion was about. He tried to calm him down but was also hit over the head and that caused him to lose consciousness.

‘The practice manager then jumped on the defendant’s back when they saw the defendant attack the doctor and they were thrown to the floor and another member of staff was at some point struck across the head by the defendant with the barrier and injured.’

Under questioning from his barrister, Stephen Akinsanya, the defendant agreed during the trial he had a type of schizophrenia and insisted he did not intend to cause any harm to anyone.

He described the medication he takes every day – but the court heard he had not had any medication for a week up to the day of the incident.

‘I rang [the practice] every day but it was always engaged,’ said Mr Oduntan.

‘I was feeling terrible, depressed. I was agitated. I just needed my medication… I was hearing voices and all sorts. I was in a bad place.’

He told jurors his intention was to get his medication and ‘go back home’. He described how at the time, the voices in his head ‘would not stop’.

‘I just wanted to be normal,’ he added.

‘I was not in control. I don’t know how to explain it. It was like watching somebody else do it.’

Asked by Mr Akinsanya how he feels about the incident now, Oduntan replied: ‘I feel horrible. It should never have happened. I needed help. They were supposed to help me. It did not happen. It was a breakdown of everything.’

He added: ‘I was not angry. I was distraught. I was at the end of my tether. It was not right. Where are you supposed to go if the people who are supposed to help you don’t help?’

In his closing speech, defence barrister Mr Akinsanya suggested his client was ‘just swinging’ the bollard and ‘connecting with whoever was in his way’, and had not threatened anyone. He told the jury Mr Oduntan had been without his medication for a week and had ‘lost the plot’.

‘Almost like Jekyll turning to Hyde, he became angry, he began swinging it repeatedly without saying a word,’ said Mr Akinsanya.

‘[It was] the kind of behaviour from someone exhibiting a loss of mental awareness, a lack of control, a psychotic episode which did not even allow him to contemplate what he was doing at that time.’

After the attack in September 2021, Pulse reported that two of the victims had been hospitalised with head injuries.

Mr Oduntan appeared in court a month later after being charged with nine offences.