Doctor’s Vigilance Halted Killer Nurse; Elderly Patients Murdered
By Tom Wilkinson
A HOSPITAL doctor’s vigilance prevented a nurse who murdered four elderly patients from continuing his killing spree, a senior police officer said last night.
Staff nurse Colin Norris will be jailed for life after he gave lethal doses of the diabetes drug insulin to vulnerable pensioners 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 ano ther.
The 32-year-old, from Glasgow, showed no emotion as he was convicted of four counts of murder and one of attempted murder at Newcastle Crown Court yesterday.
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 and the city’s St James’s Hospital.
He was also convicted of attempting to murder Vera Wilby, 90.
Mr Gregg said: "Were it not for the prompt actions of 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.
"In 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 Leeds General Infirmary 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 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 after lapsing into 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.
After more than two years of questioning, the Scottish nurse was charged with the four murders.
Mr Gregg said there were similarities with the case of killer GP Harold Shipman who murdered hundreds of patients.
"These are two people who were killing patients in their care and nobody really knows what motivated Shipman, much the same as we don’t know what motivated Colin Norris," he said.
The closest the prosecution came to explaining his callous crimes was to tell the jury that he did not like caring for geriatrics, and that being frail, they could be considered a burden on staff.
Norris will find out how long he must serve behind bars at a hearing today.
Murderer felt untouchable
BY November 2002, Colin Norris had already murdered three elderly patients and tried to kill another.
With his confidence growing, he administered yet another massive dose of insulin to a fifth patient, 86-year-old Ethel Hall,.
And if it were not for the actions of one particular doctor, many more people might have lost their lives at the hands of the nurse who felt he could kill with impunity.
Dr Emma Ward, a diabetes specialist, was called in after Mrs Hall fell into the unexplained hypoglycaemic coma at Leeds General Infirmary.
She ordered a blood test, which revealed that the patient, who was not diabetic, had been injected with a massive and fatal dose of insulin, 20 times greater than that normally given to a person with diabetes.
The injection given to Mrs Hall, of Calverley, Leeds, reduced the sugar content in her blood to a level where her brain became starved of the glucose it needed to function properly.
The hospital contacted West Yorkshire Police, after they established that the insulin could not have been administered by accident, and a major criminal investigation was launched.
PROFILE
TO friends and colleagues Colin Norris appeared a dedicated and caring nurse.
But he harboured a more sinister side – a growing dislike of the elderly.
A clear motive for his killing spree remains unclear, although a general dislike of the elderly was mentioned as a possible factor.
He enjoyed a normal upbringing and came from a loving, caring and supportive family.
Norris’s mother, June, and his stepfather, Raymond Morrison, live in a neat terrace in the Milton area of Glasgow.
A neighbour said: "He is a personable, decent young man, close to his granny.
He used to be a regular visitor."
In 1999 he went to ward 7 of Royal Victoria Hospital in Dundee where he cared for elderly patients.
He also did placements in nursing homes.
It was while working in these institutions that his general dislike of the elderly may have begun.
In October 2001 he worked on ward 36 at the Leeds General Infirmary.
He was then transferred to the orthopaedic ward at St James’s Hospital before Ethel Hall’s death.
During questioning in December 2002, he told police "he seemed to have been unlucky over the last 12 months".
Police tried to jog his memory of the individual patients later.
He told them he recalled Vera Wilby’s hairstyle but did not recall the others, even when shown photographs.
When charged he said: "I have never done any of it."
(c) 2008 The Journal – Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.