Newinsightinto AngelofDeath
PICK DAY
Trevor McDonald returns to investigate a case he reported on in 1993 Beverley Allitt TREVOR MCDONALD AND THE KILLER NURSE
STV, 9pm A CHILDLIKE voice on a police interview tape says: “No matter what you say, I’m sticking to my story. I did not do it.”
Her voice is so young, it could almost be a girl who won’t confess to stealing some sweets. But this is a recording of one of Britain’s most prolific serial killers.
Young nurse Beverley Allitt was just 22 years old when she attacked 13 children on the hospital ward where she worked, killing four.
Sir Trevor McDonald vividly remembers reporting on the case of the woman dubbed the Angel of Death. “It has stayed with me until this day,” he says.
Now, 25 years on from Allitt’s conviction, Sir Trevor is able to shed new light on the case, listening to the original police interviews, meeting some of her surviving victims and speaking to the detective responsible for bringing her to justice.
Former Detective Superintendent Stuart Clifton recalls: “One very senior officer said to me, ‘You’re chasing rainbows’. But there was something that just rankled with me that didn’t seem quite true.”
It was over a two-month period when children kept collapsing at Grantham Hospital in Lincolnshire. Doctors put it down to medical reasons, but in reality, well-loved nurse Allitt was always “there to help”, and was in fact overdosing them with insulin.
Victim Kayley still has flashbacks and nightmares about her ordeal. When Sir Trevor asks what frightens her now, she replies: “In case she comes back for me.”
A horrifying yet compelling insight into a case that shocked the nation.