Anaesthetist who injected partner with drugs during ‘exorcisms’ to be sentenced

A hospital anaesthetist who injected his partner with drugs during a series of exorcism ceremonies, leaving her close to death with multiple organ failure, is due to be sentenced.

Hossam Metwally, 60, made dozens of video recordings of himself administering fluids through a cannula to Kelly Wilson while chanting as part of a “dangerous perversion” of the Islamic Ruqya ritual, a court heard.

A jury at Sheffield Crown Court was warned about the disturbing nature of the content before it was shown extracts from 200 clips the doctor recorded over four years, mainly at his home in Grimsby, north-east Lincolnshire.

Some of the recordings show Ms Wilson strapped to a bed, in others she is in a bath, and some show a white liquid being administered – on occasions using an electronic device.

In one clip from 2016, Metwally can be heard chanting and after he revives his partner with smelling salts, she asks “have you raped me?” and requests the police.

Metwally, who is originally from Egypt, told the jury he performed rituals on Ms Wilson to exorcise evil spirits, called Jinns, but said he only used holy oil and did not inject anaesthetics.

Following an eight-week trial, the jury took just two hours to find the father-of-four guilty of endangering Ms Wilson’s life through the unlawful and deliberate intravenous administration of anaesthetics or sedative agents and drug possession offences.

Judge Jeremy Richardson QC told the jury he had “never been involved in a more bizarre case” in his 41-year legal career and said Metwally had been convicted on the “clearest possible” evidence.

During the trial, the jury heard how an investigation began after Ms Wilson was taken to the Diana, Prince of Wales Hospital in Grimsby – the hospital where Metwally also worked – on July 4, 2019.

Paramedics had arrived at Metwally’s home to find her in a deep coma, on the brink of a cardiac arrest and with a fluid line inserted in her chest.

John Elvidge QC, prosecuting, said Metwally “chose not to reveal that he and Ms Wilson had been engaging in an exorcism ritual on the evening of July 3 2019 during which he had administered anaesthetic sedative agents and then had to give her oxygen support”.

The court heard Metwally qualified as a doctor in Egypt and worked in Saudi Arabia before coming to the UK in 1996 and Grimsby in 1999.

He worked in Goole, Scunthorpe and Grimsby and ran his own pain clinic in the port town.

Metwally met Ms Wilson, now 33, in about 2013 when she was a student nurse. The jury heard she had a history of depression and her health deteriorated so she stopped working as a nurse.

The jury heard how Metwally held a “vast stock of drugs” at his Laceby Road home, including ampoules of ketamine, propofol, fentanyl and Diazemuls, and that he “fed” Ms Wilson’s drug addiction.

He administered potentially lethal anaesthetic drugs to perform Muslim exorcism rituals known as Ruqya.

Metwally was found guilty of the intravenous administration of anaesthetic drugs to sedate Ms Wilson which endangered her life; the supply of various controlled drugs or medicines and the possession of a controlled drug with intent to supply.

He admitted a charge of fraud and two further charges of voyeurism.