Doctor who drugged girlfriend as part of 'Islamic ritual' faces jail

Anaesthetist, 60, who nearly killed his girlfriend, 33, by injecting her hundreds of times in Islamic exorcism ritual that he had learned on YouTube faces jail

• Hossam Metwally guilty of endangering life via unlawful and deliberate intravenous administration of anaesthetics or sedative agents and other charges
• Judge Jeremy Richardson QC branded trial ‘most bizarre’ of his 41-year career
• Metwally will be handed a ‘substantial’ jail sentence at a later court appearance   

Hossam Metwally (pictured), 60, caused multiple organ failure in Kelly Wilson, 33, after feeding her drugs through a cannula during a series of exorcism ceremonies

A hospital anaesthetist will be jailed for a ‘substantial’ period of time after almost killing his girlfriend by injecting her with noxious substances as part of a ‘perverted’ twist on an Islamic exorcism ritual. 

Hossam Metwally, 60, caused multiple organ failure in Kelly Wilson, 33, after feeding her drugs through a cannula during a series of ceremonies, which he had learnt to perform from watching videos on Youtube.  

Judge Jeremy Richardson QC said Friday that it was the ‘most bizarre’ trial he has seen in his 41-year career. 

The jury at Sheffield Crown Court had been shown extracts from 200 clips the doctor had recorded over his four-year drugging campaign, which mainly took place at his home in Grimsby, north-east Lincolnshire.

The videos showed Miss Wilson being injected with unknown substances via a tube attached to her chest as Metwally chanted verses from the Quran. 

The father of four was performing his own take on the Ruqya ritual, which typically sees an Islamic white-gloved therapist or ‘healer’ place a hand on a person’s head while reciting verses from the Quran. 

They will sometimes use honey and water as a purification ritual to cleanse the soul and body of sins – but never drugs.

On Thursday, following an eight-week trial, the jury took just two hours to find Metwally guilty of endangering Miss Wilson’s life through the unlawful and deliberate intravenous administration of anaesthetics or sedative agents, and drug possession offences.

On Friday, Judge Richardson lifted a reporting restriction, which had prevented reporting of the trial, after Metwally admitted two further charges of voyeurism.

The defendant – who worked at the Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby – will be sentenced next month and was remanded in custody.

Judge Richardson told Metwally: ‘In 41 years of experience in the criminal justice system of this country I have never been involved or presided over a more bizarre trial than this one.’

Judge Richardson said the medic was convicted on ‘quite frankly overwhelming evidence’, and said: ‘It is a shocking circumstance that a doctor, a medical professional, should find himself in the dock awaiting sentence on such a serious criminal charge.

The jury had been shown extracts from 200 clips the doctor had recorded over his four-year drugging campaign, which mainly took place at his home in Grimsby, north-east Lincolnshire. The videos showed Kelly Wilson (pictured), 33, being injected with unknown substances via a tube attached to her chest as Metwally chanted verses from the Quran

‘Please be under no misapprehension that the sentence of imprisonment in this case is inevitably going to be of some substance.’ 

The trial heard how Metwally had been performing exorcisms on Miss Wilson to ‘rid her of evil spirits’. He claimed he was helping her ‘out of kindness’. 

Metwally said he had contacted an Islamic association and was referred to someone who practised Ruqya in Liverpool.

He watched and learned about the ceremony on YouTube, including the concepts of the evil eye and black magic.

He also watched examples of it on Facebook.

Ruqya: Islamic ritual to cast out evil spirits 

The process of Quranic healing in order to exorcise spirits can be divided into three stages. 

The first includes removing any distractions, such as music instruments and golden jewelry.  

The healer also removes all pictures in the room allowing angels to enter. 

The healer then tells the client and the family, that everything happens by God’s will and that he is merely a mediator, also mentioning that other forms of healing, such as by sorcery, are not acceptable to Islam. 

In the second stage, the healer determines if the client is possessed or not and tries to enter a dialogue with the spirit. 

The healer might ask the spirit about type (Zar (red wind), ghosts (Arwah), jinn (genii), samum (devils), div), religion, sex or reason for possession. When he asks the client, instead of the spirit, about dreams and feelings involved of the dream. 

After that, the healer cleans himself, the room, and asks the people in the room to do the same. 

In the third stage, actual exorcism begins by reciting Quranic verses such as Al-Fatiha, Al Baqara, Al-Baqara 255, Al-Jinn and three Qul (Al-Ikhlas, An-Nas and Al-Falaq), depending on the type of spirit. 

Other treatments include using honey and water, as a purification ritual to clean the soul and body from sins.

In a typical Islamic exorcism the treated person lies down while a white-gloved therapist places a hand on their head while reciting verses from the Quran. 

‘I performed a Ruqya to help her out of kindness,’ he claimed.

During his ‘ceremonies’, he would cite verses from the Quran and use holy water from Mecca, along with different oils.

The jury was told he was ‘prepared to endanger’ Miss Wilson’s life and that she was found in a deep coma after he had been injecting her with dangerous drugs at The Lincs Pain Clinic – which the couple ran out of their home – in July 2019.

When she was rushed to hospital by her family, medical staff thought she was going to die due to the total organ failure she had suffered. 

She had been found just in time by relatives lying on a bed in an upstairs bedroom wearing an oxygen mask.

She was extremely pale and had a weak pulse, while Metwally was lying next to her.    

Dr Kate Wood, medical director at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust, said Friday: ‘This doctor was immediately excluded from working at the trust as soon as these events came to light and reported to the General Medical Council (GMC).

‘We are shocked and appalled by his actions, which took place on private premises, not on trust premises and did not involve NHS patients under our care.

‘He is no longer employed by the trust.’   

Metwally was charged with administering an unknown noxious substance to Miss Wilson and causing her grievous bodily harm with intent between July 2 and 5.

The couple were co-directors of a business called the Lincs Pain Clinic, which had been based at their semi-detached home in a suburb of Grimsby.

Prosecutor Martin Howard said members of Miss Wilson’s family came to the house in Grimsby on July 4 because they were concerned for her welfare.

They called an ambulance and neighbours said she was carried out on a stretcher.

She was taken to Grimsby’s Diana Princess of Wales Hospital and admitted to intensive care.

Hospital staff alerted Humberside Police the following day and officers inspected the home. 

Metwally was arrested and police carried out a detailed forensic examination over several days. 

He was an anaesthetist and chronic pain specialist at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust.

Miss Wilson, a nurse, formerly worked for the same NHS trust as Metwally, who has children from a previous relationship who do not live with him.

Metwally, a British national, qualified in Egypt and moved to the UK in 1996. 

He had worked as an anaesthetist and pain clinic specialist at the Diana Princess of Wales Hospital, Scunthorpe General Hospital and local clinics. 

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