Killer on the wards
Nurse Victorino Chua poisoned patients at a hospital in 2011…
During the summer of 2011, 21 patients at Stepping Hill Hospital in Greater Manchester were deliberately poisoned by an unknown culprit and three of them died.
‘Five people had suffered hypoglycaemic incidents on the same evening and none of them had a previous history,’ says Nazir Afzal, former Chief Crown Prosecutor, who appears in this week’s Crimes That
Shook Britain.
Contaminated
The first clue came when a nurse on ward A3 noticed a saline bag that was contaminated with insulin. Staff then found a further 45 bags had been tampered with. All staff members suddenly came under suspicion.
‘The community was scared,’ says Nazir. ‘There was a lot of pressure on the police to identify the culprit. This was a murder mystery like no other. You’ve got 700 suspects, all staff members, and we had to eliminate them all, one by one.’
Police whittled it down to one suspect, 46-yearold nurse Victorino Chua, from the Philippines. As well as working on the ward where the deaths occurred, Chua’s nursing certificates had been falsified, and an incriminating letter was found ranting about his contempt for others.
In May 2015, Chua was found guilty of 33 charges, including two murders, and jailed for life.
‘He didn’t care who he harmed and he was happy for other members of staff to take the blame,’ says Nazir. ‘He didn’t care which patient got it. He was one of the most calculating criminals I’ve ever had to deal with.’
CI is available on Sky Channel 553 and Virgin 275