It was a blood trans-food-sion.
Closed-circuit TV cameras captured the revolting moment a lawyer in the UK allegedly injected grocery store food with his own blood.
The shocking footage, which was presented to jurors at Isleworth Crown Court on Tuesday, shows the 37-year-old defendant, Leoaai Elghareeb, apparently sticking syringes into apples, chicken tikka fillets and ready-to-eat meals at a Sainsbury’s supermarket.
The bloodbath was part of a grocery store rampage that took place on Aug. 25 at Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Tesco markets in Fulham, west London.
“This behavior was bizarre,” his lawyer, Kyri Argyropoulos, told the jury during a court appearance, adding that Elghareeb “was not of a fit and sane mind” during the incidents.
Basting food with blood was just the tip of the iceberg: At Sainsbury’s, the cretin allegedly threw eggs at both staff and customers and pushed a security guard in the chest.
And the mayhem wasn’t confined to indoors, as Elghareeb was also accused of chucking an empty needle at a National Health Service surgeon outdoors, hitting her in the chest, the Independent reported. He was finally detained outside a bar after allegedly picking up a potted plant and heaving it through the open doorway.
A total of 21 syringes were recovered from the bloody crime scenes. Meanwhile, as a precaution, the impacted stores were forced to throw away and restock food before reopening, which resulted in hemorrhaging costs of about $281,442.38 (£207,000) for Waitrose, $194,426.37 (£143,000) for Sainsbury’s and $159,024.64 (£117,000) for Tesco.
At the hearing, a psychiatrist said Elghareeb felt as if he was living in a “Truman Show” simulation where “everything was fake” — a reference to the 1998 Jim Carrey comedy. The doctor added that the man also believed he had a device implanted in his brain and hoped that his rash behavior would alert “the real police” to his predicament.
Elghareeb’s attorney concluded that the defendant “was extremely unwell at the time, as you have heard from two consultant psychiatrists . . . This was not the acts of someone who may feel is of a fit and sane mind.”
Elghareeb has since pleaded not guilty to three counts of contaminating food and two counts of assault by reason of insanity.
This isn’t the first time someone has been accused of seasoning foodstuffs with bodily fluids. On Friday, a twisted ex-teacher in Louisiana was sentenced to 41 years in prison after admitting to feeding her students cupcakes that were spiked with her husband’s semen.