Patient safety

Patient sentenced to jail after attempting to murder Watford GP with crossbow

A patient who tried to kill his GP with a crossbow four days after the death of his father has been jailed for 20 years.

Mark Waterfall, 46, reportedly blamed Dr Gary Griffith for his father’s death, and entered the GP’s surgery 10 July last year.

Waterfall told the doctor: “You killed my father, I am going to kill you,” before shooting a metal tipped bolt with a crossbow at Griffith at Suthergrey House Medical Centre in Watford.

Sentencing Waterfall at St Albans Crown Court, judge Stephen Warner said Dr Griffith only survived by “pure good fortune” as it was estimated that the crossbow arrow would have been travelling at 187ft per second when it hit the GP in the stomach whilst he sat at his desk.

The judge said Griffith only survived the attack because it was a warm day and the layers of fabric from his untucked shirt lessened the impact.

Five days before the attack, Waterfall’s father Terence went to see Dr Griffith with a complaint of breathlessness and the GP arranged for fluid to be drained from the patient’s right lung.

But it was discovered Terence had lung cancer, and he died the next day.

Prior to the sentencing, a victim personal statement from Griffith was read out, and the doctor revealed he had suffered severe nightmares following the attack and “this one incident has destroyed all of those positive feelings about my workplace. I no longer feel safe.”

Judge Warner told Waterfall that he had fired the bolt with the intention to kill the GP and concluded he was a danger to the public, sentencing him to an extended 25-year jail sentence.

Waterfall, who has a history of mental health issues including depression, will serve a 20-year custodial sentence.