Nurse convicted of killing patients

Staff nurse Colin Norris will be jailed for life after he gave lethal doses of the diabetes drug insulin to vulnerable pensioners who were receiving treatment at two Leeds hospitals in 2002 for hip injuries.

Dr Emma Ward, a colleague, grew suspicious after one of the women fell seriously ill while under Norris's care, and she alerted the authorities who eventually discovered the nurse had already killed three times and tried to murder another. The 32-year-old from Egilsay Terrace, Glasgow, showed no emotion as he was convicted of four counts of murder and one of attempted murder at Newcastle Crown Court today, following a lengthy trial.

Outside court, Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Gregg described Norris as "extremely arrogant", and without remorse for killing Doris Ludlam, 80, Bridget Bourke, 88, Irene Crookes, 79 and Ethel Hall, 86, while he worked at the Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) and the city's St James's Hospital.

He was also convicted of attempting to murder Vera Wilby, 90.

Mr Gregg said: "The Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust have been extremely supportive during our investigation and were it not for the prompt actions of one doctor, Dr Emma Ward, following the unexplained coma that beset Ethel Hall, then I am convinced that other people would have lost their lives at his hands.

"Within a six month period Norris murdered four women and attempted to murder another. His confidence was growing to such an extent he clearly felt he could kill with impunity."

Norris predicted Mrs Hall would die on his shift - despite her recovering well from hip surgery at the LGI after a fall. He told a colleague it was his luck that patients "always died" on his shifts.

But Dr Ward, a diabetes expert, was surprised enough by Mrs Hall's collapse into a coma that she ordered blood tests which revealed insulin levels around 12 times the norm - and became suspicious because the patient was not diabetic so there was no medical reason for her to be injected. The police were called in and detectives checked medical records of other patients who died from comas when Norris was on duty.

West Yorkshire Police built up the case against the nurse by taking 7,000 statements from hospital staff, relatives and patients. More than 3,000 exhibits were seized in a huge investigation which stretched to 300 binders and included complex shift patterns, hospital security and some of the world's leading medical experts in a range of fields.