A guest at a City of London hotel who stabbed three members of staff in the face with a wine glass in a drug and drink fuelled “rampage“ has been jailed for seven years.
Oliver Huckerby, 22, smashed the glass into a security guard’s face when he was denied entry to the rooftop bar of the Leonardo Royal hotel for being too drunk.
In a shocking burst of violence, he stabbed the same guard in the head with the broken stem of the glass, before attacking a second security guard and a member of the bar staff.
Shocking footage, which has been deemed too graphic to be released, showed Huckerby menacingly brandishing the wine glass, attempting to stab a random member of the public, and eventually being fended off by staff and guests who had armed themselves with furniture and ornaments for their own protection.
Huckerby, a builder, told Inner London crown court he had no memory of the orgy of violence, after sharing two bottles of wine at dinner with his girlfriend and taking two “little bumps” of cocaine.
He was convicted by a jury of three charges of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, and was sentenced to seven years in prison on Thursday.
Huckerby says it was his first experience of cocaine and he does not drink heavily.
He told jurors he woke up in hospital to the news of what he had done.
Footage released by City of London Police shows Huckerby, from Hertfordshire, in the seconds before he launched the first attack on security guard Daniel Lessie.
He had been turned away from the Sabine bar on the 7th floor of the hotel in Godliman Street, overlooking St Paul’s Cathedral, on December 16, 2023.
Staff saw Huckerby being “agitated, shouting at Daniel, squaring up to him, face to face“ before he suddenly lunged forward with the wine glass.
Mr Lessie was stabbed a second time, close to his eye, and left him with “blood pouring out of his face”.
A waiter at the bar told the court: “I could see the white of his skull through the wound.”
Huckerby was described as being “uncontrolled and in rage”, and was heard to shout: “I’m going to kill you.”
After the attack on Mr Lessie, Huckerby used the broken glass to stabbed a member of the bar staff, Khadar Said, in the side of his face.
“The male swung a glass at me”, said Mr Said. “I thought it was just a punch, but I later realised he had thrown the punch with the broken stem of a wine glass into the left side of my face, close to my eye.”
He recalls a “deadly stare” from Huckerby “like he was going to attack me again”, and picked up a chair to defend himself.
Huckerby was seen trying to stab one of the hotel guests in the neck, before he was pelted with furniture in a desperate attempt to quell the violence.
“If I hadn’t have done this, the male would have gone around and stabbed more people”, added Mr Said.
Marcel Seaka, another security guard, was the third victim, who witnessed Huckerby being denied entry and then call police to report the stabbings.
“While I was on the phone to police, I was attacked”, he said. “Initially I thought he punched me, but seeing the amount of blood and being in so much pain, I realised it was the glass.
“He struck me in the cheekbone area. After attacking me, he went straight past me to continue his rampage.”
He added: “I will have a scar for the rest of my life.”
Huckerby was soaked in blood when he was arrested outside the hotel. Later at the hospital, he poured a cup of water over a police officer after getting annoyed that he had not been discharged.
He later told police he and his girlfriend had treated themselves to a £260 night at the luxury hotel, they were joined towards the end of dinner by two friends, and had decided to have more alcohol drinks.
“I’m sat at the table and the next thing I know I’m in hospital. It’s jumped like that. I was laying down on the bed getting my hand checked out”, he told his trial.
Huckerby, of Piggotts Way in Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, pleaded guilty to three counts of inflicting grievous bodily harm and one count of assaulting an emergency worker. He was found guilty in majority verdicts of the more serious charges of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
He is set to serve two thirds of the seven year prison term before being eligible for release.
