Evil nurse got £800k in legal aid

A KILLER nurse received nearly £800,000 in legal aid – more than his victims got in compensation.

Victorino Chua murdered two people and poisoned 19 others.

He injected insulin into saline bags and ampoules at a hospital, causing patients to suffer overdoses.

Chua was told he would serve at least 35 years when he was given a life sentence at Manchester Crown Court in July 2015.

A Freedom of Information request revealed he got £779,000 to fund his defence – higher than the total compensation awarded to his victims and their families.

The figures show £379,991 was paid in solicitor costs, £308,445 in barrister costs and £90,566 for other legal expenses.

While one of Chua’s victims got a £500,000 payout, others received less than £10,000 each to make a total of £760,475.

Lynda Bleasdale, whose brother Derek Weaver, 83, was murdered, said: “The compensation my family received was barely enough to cover my brother’s funeral costs.

“It’s totally unjust. For his lawyers to be paid so much more than the families is appalling.”

Father-of-two Chua, 51, went on his deadly poisoning spree at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, Gtr Manchester.

After his arrest in January 2012, police found a selfpenned letter at his home.

In the note, described as “the bitter nurse confession” by Chua, he said he was “an angel turned into an evil person” and “there’s a devil in me”.

He also wrote of having things he would “take to the grave”.

Police suspect that Filipino Chua got someone else to sit his professional nursing exam in his homeland.