Is ‘Angel of Death’ nurse innocent of 4 murders?
Scot serving 30yrs has case referred to appeal court amid doubts over evidence
A ScotS nurse branded the ‘Angel of Death’ who is serving 30 years for the murder of four patients could be set free.
colin Norris, 44, was found guilty in 2008 of murdering four women and attempting to kill another by injecting them with insulin.
But his convictions for murder and attempted murder have been referred to the court of Appeal to consider whether they should be quashed.
It follows doubts over scientific evidence presented at court and whether some of the women may have died of natural causes.
the pensioners who died, Ethel Hall, 86, Bridget Bourke, 89, Doris Ludlam, 80, and Irene crookes, 78, were inpatients on orthopaedic wards in Leeds, where Norris worked. All suffered from hypoglycaemia, or extremely low blood sugar, which causes the brain and other organs to shut down.
At trial, the prosecution claimed that hypoglycaemia in nondiabetics is so rare that a cluster of five cases within six months must mean murder.
But in 2014, a review of existing scientific research by Vincent Marks, an expert on insulin poisoning and emeritus professor at the University of Surrey, revealed that the condition occurs naturally in up to 10 per cent of sick elderly people.
After reviewing the case, the criminal cases Review commission (CCRC) has decided to refer all five convictions to the court of Appeal. It said: ‘As a result of the new expert evidence, the CCRC has concluded that there is a real possibility that the court of Appeal will decide that Mr Norris’s conviction for the murder/ attempted murder of one or more of the four patients is unsafe.’
Norris, from Glasgow, was arrested after Mrs Hall suffered a hypoglycaemic episode at Leeds General Infirmary, leading to her death three weeks later. A laboratory test showed she had very high insulin levels. After sifting through records of patients treated by Norris, police identified three other deaths following hypoglycaemic episodes and the case of Vera Wilby, 90, who had suffered an episode but recovered.
Norris was found guilty by Newcastle crown court and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 30 years.
But the case against him was wholly circumstantial and heavily reliant on expert opinion.
Experts have now agreed that the hypoglycaemia in four of the women – other than Mrs Hall, who died on December 11, 2002 – may be accounted for by natural
Case was reliant on expert opinion
causes, according to the CCRC. the fact Mrs Hall was killed is not currently being legally questioned, but the CCRC considers this conviction depends on support from the other cases and the prosecution’s assertion no-one other than Norris could have been responsible.