Blood and glass were left strewn across the bar of the Leonardo Royal hotel after the attack by drunk guest
A guest at a luxury hotel overlooking St Paul’s Cathedral stabbed three members of staff in the face with a wine glass during a “rampage” when he was denied access to the rooftop bar, a court has heard.
Oliver Huckerby, 22, smashed the glass into a security guard’s face and then brandished the broken stem as a weapon at the Leonardo Royal hotel in the City of London.
He stabbed a bar worker in the face, close to his eye, and then attacked a second security guard who had called 999 to alert the police.
Staff and fellow guests threw chairs and a lamp at Huckerby to try to stop him, as blood and glass lay strew across the floor of the bar area, Inner London crown court heard.
The victims of the attack have been scarred for life, while one needed treatment to a wound so deep that his skull was exposed.
Huckerby, a builder from Hertfordshire, later told police he had shared two bottles of wine at dinner with his girlfriend and had two “little bumps” of cocaine.
He has admitted causing the injuries to hotel staff, but says he cannot remember anything between being at dinner and waking up hours later in a hospital bed.
Huckerby, who has no previous criminal convictions or cautions, denies he had any intention to cause harm during the hotel rampage.
Jurors heard he and his girlfriend checked into the Leonardo Royal St Paul’s hotel in Godliman Street on December 16, 2023, after deciding to treat themselves to a £260 room for the night.
Daniel Lessie, a security guard, was the first to be attacked after he refused Huckerby entry to the Sabine bar on the hotel’s 7th floor for being too intoxicated.
A front of house hostess described seeing Huckerby become “agitated, shouting at Daniel, squaring up to him, face to face.”
She said her colleague told him to leave, and Huckerby then “smashed the glass with as much force as possible to the left side of Daniel’s face.
“He was hit with so much force I saw glass flying everywhere from the impact.”
The court heard Huckerby used the broken wine glass stem to stab Mr Lessie 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.”
The hostess described Huckerby as “uncontrolled and in rage”, and heard him shout: “I’m going to kill you.”
“The whole area was covered in blood and glass”, she added. “I was in total shock, very traumatised, and confused. He was out of control.
“This was the most terrifying situation I’ve been in in my life. I’ve never seen so much violence, I’ve never been so scared of everything.”
After the attack on Mr Lessie, Huckerby used the broken glass to stab 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.”
The Leonardo Royal hotel enjoys stunning views from the rooftop bar over the nearby St Paul’s Cathedral, and it is regularly hired out for conferences and events including a media conference last April which was addressed by former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Huckerby, in a blood-soaked tracksuit, was arrested outside the hotel and taken to hospital for treatment to wounds he had suffered to his head and finger.
The court heard he poured a cup of water over a police officer at around 4am, after becoming annoyed at not being discharged.
Ahead of the trial, Huckerby pleaded guilty to three counts of inflicting grievous bodily harm and one count of assaulting an emergency worker. But proseucutors brought the case to a jury, arguing he is guilty of the more serious charges of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
In his police interview, Huckerby said he and his girlfriend of four years had dinner in the hotel restaurant, they were joined by two friends, and had planned to have more drinks.
He recalls having a starter, a main course of a burger which was “a bit sh*t”, and then he told officers: “I don’t remember leaving the restaurant.”
“I was in a good mood”, he said.
“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.”
Huckerby said he does not regularly use cocaine and is not a big drinker, and added: “They told me I apparently had stabbed three people with a glass object.
“I still can’t remember past the restaurant. I wish I could.”
Huckerby, of Piggotts Way in Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, denies three charges of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
The trial in front of Judge Vanessa Baraitser continues.
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