Scots Nurse Accused Of Murder By Insulin

A Scottish nurse who “didn’t like old people” murdered four elderly patients by injecting them with lethal doses of insulin, a court heard yesterday.

{mosimage}Colin Norris, from Glasgow, even predicted the time one woman would die, despite colleagues believing the pensioner was comfortable after hip surgery. The court heard that all four women died in the early hours when Norris was working, and they could all have been considered “a burden to nursing staff”. Norris was said to have told a colleague that one of his patients “was going off that night”, adding it was “just his luck” that she should die in the night, as he would “have all the paperwork to do”.

Robert Smith, QC, who yesterday opened the case against Norris, said the accused then went on to predict successfully the time she would die – 5:15am.

The 31-year-old denies four counts of murder while working at two Leeds hospitals between May and December in 2002.

His alleged victims were Doris Ludlam, 80, from Pudsey, West Yorkshire; Bridget Bourke, 88, from Holbeck, Leeds; Irene Crookes, 79, from Leeds; and Ethel Hall, 86, from Calverley.

He also denies attempted murder charges against the same four and the attempted murder of another elderly patient who survived a coma.

The jury was told that Norris “hated” working with geriatric patients during a placement at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Dundee.

He was also “extremely unhappy” about another placement at a nursing home in the city. “He didn’t like geriatric patients,” Mr Smith said.

THE last of his alleged victims, Ethel Hall, 86, had suffered a fractured hip in November 2002 after a fall. An operation to repair the break had gone reasonably well and she was recovering on Ward 36 at Leeds General Infirmary, Mr Smith said, until her death a week later.

Mr Smith told Newcastle Crown Court: “She developed a catastrophic brain injury and coma from which she was never to recover.” Norris was a staff nurse on the ward and he predicted she would die during his night shift. That was despite colleagues believing she was comfortable following a fainting episode earlier in the day.

Norris, of Egilsay Terrace, Glasgow, told a colleague he thought “Ethel was going off that night”, Mr Smith said. “It was just his luck, [Norris] said, that if Ethel Hall died in the night, he would have all the paperwork to do.”

Mr Smith said the nurse told another colleague: “Whenever I did nights, someone always died.”

The barrister added: “Significantly, he said something quite extraordinary – he went on to predict the time of Ethel Hall’s death.”

Mr Smith said Norris told a colleague: “It was always in the morning when things go wrong – about 05:15.”

“This prediction by Norris proved to be entirely correct.”

Norris and his colleagues were at the nurses’ station when they heard choking coming from the other end of the ward, Mr Smith told the jury. Mrs Hall was slumped in her bed in a hypoglycaemic coma – from which she never recovered. It was so severe that she suffered irreversible brain damage and died on 11 December.

“One of the medical doctors was shocked to see her deterioration after seeing her the day before,” Mr Smith said.

“Staff Nurse Norris was confident of his prediction. He looked at his watch and said to Staff Nurse Ruth Shiel, ‘I told you so’.

“You are entitled to ask yourself, say the prosecution, how Staff Nurse Norris had the foresight to predict this event, even to the correct time. The answer to that question is why this trial is taking place.” Mr Smith said Mrs Hall was not diabetic, and added that the dose of insulin was “far in excess of what any diabetic patient may require”.

“The prosecution’s case is that Mrs Hall was undoubtedly deliberately killed. It is shocking that a vulnerable patient in the care of a hospital should be deliberately killed in a way that amounted more to murder,” he added.

Mrs Hall’s murder was “a motiveless crime”, the jury heard. “What is clear is that Mrs Hall was 86 and was in a mentally confused state post-surgery,” Mr Smith said. “Whether Norris considered she had reached the end of her life and should be helped on her way, or she was a nuisance and her life ought to be brought to an end, remains a distinct possibility.”

Mrs Hall was one of five women to be administered insulin, the court was told.

THE first of Norris’s alleged victims survived. Ninety-year-old Vera Wilby was admitted to Ward 36 for an operation in May 2002.

Mr Smith said that she was a difficult patient and suffered from dementia.

He said Norris made her drowsy with an unnecessary dose of morphine, then gave her insulin. She fell into a coma but did not die, the court heard.

DORIS Ludlam, 80, was a very sick woman and another difficult patient. She was admitted to Ward 36 in June, where Norris allegedly gave her diamorphine she did not need. Norris then gave her insulin and she slipped into a coma from which she did not recover, the jury heard.

BRIDGET Bourke, 88, was admitted to Leeds General Infirmary after fracturing her right hip. Mr Smith said: “She was on Ward 36 at the same time as Doris Ludlam and Vera Wilby. Colin Norris had contact with all three at the same time.”

Mrs Bourke was frail and confused, the court heard.

Mr Smith said: “At 03:10 on 21 July, Staff Nurse Colin Norris claimed to have discovered Mrs Bourke slumped in bed on her right side and unresponsive.”

The prosecution said she was deeply unconscious and never recovered.

Mr Smith said Norris then transferred to St James’s Hospital across the city, where he worked on an orthopaedic ward.

IT WAS while working there on Ward 23, that Irene Crookes, 79, died.

Mr Smith told the jury: “It is significant that, during his placement at St James’s Hospital, no other member of nursing staff at Ward 36 went to work at St James’s.

“Therefore it is highly significant that another elderly patient suffered a hypoglycaemic coma while in the care of Staff Nurse Colin Norris. Her name was Irene Crookes.”

Mrs Crookes had been admitted after fracturing her hip in a fall at home.

On the night of 19 October, 2002, Norris began his night shift.

The following morning, between 5:45am and 6am, Norris reported to a colleague that Mrs Crookes was “totally unresponsive”.

She had suffered a hypoglycaemic coma and died the following morning.

Mr Smith told the court that there were a number of “remarkable common facts” between the five victims. All suffered fractured hips and had undergone surgery.

Each one was in poor health and was difficult and could be regarded as a “burden to nursing staff”, Mr Smith said.

In addition, between four and 12 days after surgery, all five women had suffered from hypoglycaemia which resulted in a coma.

All the women, he said, were patients on wards where Norris was working and the fatal comas occurred early in the morning – meaning the fatal doses of insulin had been administered at night when the defendant was working.

Mr Smith added: “Colin Norris deliberately administered these drugs to these five women.

“He did so intending to kill them.”

Mr Smith said Norris did not succeed with his first “victim”. But, following the deaths of the next three women, he thought he could get away with his actions and carry on with “impunity”, the prosecutor said. “He didn’t realise that Ethel Hall’s blood sample would be sent for analysis to a specialist laboratory and it would result in his arrest.”

After starting work at Leeds General Infirmary in October 2001, Norris told a trainee nurse that he was having second thoughts about pursuing a career in nursing.

“He went on to say, words to the effect of, that he didn’t like old people,” Mr Smith told the jury.

The trial continues.

‘AVERSION TO THE ELDERLY’
COLIN Norris enrolled in a higher diploma in nursing at Dundee University in September 1998 and graduated in June 2001, the trial heard.

Robert Smith, QC, for the prosecution, said: “Staff nurse Colin Norris was not always happy with working with the care of the elderly.”

The defendant had been sent on a placement to a ward at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Dundee, which specialised in the care for the elderly.

He told his nursing tutor “he hated his placement and missed part of the attachment through unauthorised absence”, Mr Smith said.

Later, Norris missed 11 days of a placement at a Dundee nursing home.

Mr Smith told the jury: “He was extremely unhappy about it. He didn’t like geriatric patients. He liked the trauma work because of the excitement of it all.”

The court was also told that, while at Dundee University, right, Norris attended lectures on diabetes and the use and dangers of insulin.