‘Entirely innocent’: Nurse arrested at height of scare

NURSE Rebecca Leighton spent six weeks at Styal Prison charged with murdering patients at Stepping Hill Hospital.

Under-pressure prosecutors sanctioned a charge against her at the height of the poisoning attacks in the summer of 2011.

Police had found her fingerprints on contaminated saline products and, confident other evidence would follow, she was charged.

But as a nurse working at the hospital, she had to handle medical products and could be expected to leave fingerprints.

The other evidence never materialised and the detective leading the case, Chief Supt Simon Barraclough, who had misgivings about her case, ordered her release from prison.

“She was entirely

All charges were dropped against Rebecca Leighton innocent,” he said. Later police paid out £53,000 to the 29-yearold nurse after she alleged police had leaked her name to the press and that officers had made her Facebook page public.