Killer nurse Victorino Chua fails in bid to challenge conviction and sentence
A hospital nurse who murdered two patients and poisoned others has failed in a bid to challenge his conviction and sentence.
Victorino Chua was jailed for life with a minimum term of 35 years in May last year after being convicted by a jury at Manchester Crown Court.
His applications for permission to appeal against both conviction and sentence were rejected on Thursday by judges at the Court of Appeal in London.
The father of two, now 50, who was described by police as a narcissistic psychopath, injected insulin into saline bags and ampoules while working on two acute wards at Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport, in June and July 2011.
These were unwittingly used by other nurses, causing a series of insulin overdoses to mainly elderly victims.
When the self-styled “angel turned evil” was sentenced, the trial judge Mr Justice Openshaw described his actions as “indescribably wicked”.
He said it was a “strikingly sinister and truly wicked feature of the case” that Chua did not know who would fall victim to his actions.
Lord Justice Treacy, sitting with two other judges, announced that the one proposed ground of appeal against conviction was not “arguable”, and rejected argument that the minimum term of 35 years was “manifestly excessive”.
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