Life Sentence For Killer Nurse

A male nurse who murdered four elderly patients and attempted to murder a fifth at two hospitals in Leeds has been jailed for life.

Colin Norris, 32, from Egilsay Terrace in Glasgow, was given four life sentences with a minimum term of 30 years for each of the murders and a 20-year sentence to run concurrently for attempted murder. He will have to spend at least 30 years in prison.

At Newcastle Crown Court on Monday, Norris was found guilty of murdering four female patients - Ethel Hall, 86, from Calverley, Leeds; Doris Ludlum, 80, from Pudsey; and Bridget Bourke, 88, from Holbeck at Leeds General Infirmary and Irene Crooks, 79, from Leeds, at St James's Hospital - via massive doses of insulin in 2002. He was also found guilty of the attempted murder of another patient - Vera Wilby, 90, from Rawdon at Leeds General Infirmary.

Norris had denied all the charges.

During the five-month trial at Newcastle Crown Court, the jury heard that Norris first attracted suspicion when he predicted the death of Mrs Hall. Mrs Hall, who had been recovering from hip surgery at the time of her death, later slipped into a fatal coma. Test results revealed insulin levels 12 times higher than the normal level in her body. The prosecution had claimed that these were caused by injections administered by Norris.

Following the death of Mrs Hall, police began investigating other patient deaths.

At sentencing on Tuesday, Mr Justice Griffith Williams described Norris as "a thoroughly evil and dangerous man", who was "arrogant and manipulative" with "a real dislike of elderly patients". He said: "There cannot be any suggestion you were motivated to hasten their ends to spare them suffering; indeed, there was no evidence that any of them was suffering apart from the pains that the elderly sometimes have.

"I suspect you enjoyed the power that ending a life gave you, choosing the elderly because they were defenceless."

Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Gregg said: "We have no idea what motivated Norris to kill, only he knows the answer to that. He has been described by the judge as an 'evil and dangerous' man. I am convinced he would have gone on to kill more patients had he not been stopped in his tracks.

"We welcome the minimum 30 years sentence which will hopefully go some way to helping the families deal with this terrible episode in their lives."

(KMcA/JM)