Fresh evidence brings appeal hope for ‘Angel of Death’ nurse

Glasgow-born Colin Norris was jailed for at least 30 years in March 2008 for killing the four women and attempting to murder a fifth at Leeds General Infirmary and St James’s Hospital in 2002.

But campaigners hope fresh evidence supporting the 37-year-old’s claims of innocence will lead to an appeal where it can be shown the women could have died of natural causes.

They have submitted the evidence to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) in the hope that the case will be referred to the Court of Appeal.

Norris was convicted after being accused of deliberately injecting the patients with insulin. Bridget Bourke, Irene Crooks, Ethel Hall and Doris Ludlam died. A fifth patient, Vera Wilby, recovered from the episode but died later from unconnected causes.

The evidence sent to the CCRC may now prove that the fatal cases of hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar levels, may have occurred naturally rather than as a result of foul play.

Professor Vincent Marks, an expert on insulin poisoning, has said that spontaneous hypoglycemia among non-diabetic elderly patients is relatively common.

The geriatric medicine department at Rotherham General Hospital and the Bedforshire and Hertfordshire Postgraduate Medical School later published a review concluding that “hypoglycemia is not uncommon in hospitalised non-diabetic older people” with other serious conditions.

The revelations are contained in a new book, The Case of Colin Norris, published yesterday by miscarriage group Inside Justice. Speaking on ITV’s Daybreak yesterday, Norris’s mother June said she now had renewed hope.

She said: “It’s so strong, the new evidence, and hopefully people will take a good look at it and hopefully we can get Colin back to the Court of Appeal.

“He’s just thankful for someone listening to him, for the support that he’s been getting from ourselves and people like Louise [Shorter] with Inside Justice.

“He has always got the wee doubt at the back of his mind because it has taken so long to get to this point and he’s already lost an appeal but we are hopeful, there is a bit of hope there this time.”

Mrs Norris said her son Colin had been struggling to adapt to prison life since he was jailed in 2008.

She said: “It’s been very difficult for him, he’s had to change his way of thinking. He’s had to change his every day, he’s always looking over his shoulders still but that’s part of the regime, that’s what he’s got to do.”

The new studies contradict expert evidence at Norris’s trial that non-diabetic hypoglycemia was “vanishingly rare”. The nurse was convicted on an 11-1 majority and told he must serve a minimum of 30 years in prison.

A jury at Newcastle Crown Court was told that Ethel Hall, 86, who was not diabetic, had been injected with a massive and fatal dose of insulin, which reduced the sugar content in her blood to a level where her brain became starved of the glucose it needed to function properly.

Tests showed insulin levels 12 times the norm, the court heard, and the prosecution suggested that the hypoglycaemia could only have occurred by injections of insulin.

Norris’s defence team argued that there was no evidence of unlawful injections in four of the five cases and challenged the lab results in the fifth case.

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said: “Norris was arrested, prosecuted and on the basis of the evidence presented to the court he was convicted and sentenced. His conviction was upheld at the Court of Appeal in December 2009.”

The Criminal Cases Review Commission said the application made by Norris was under “active review”.

The Case of Colin Norris, which has been co-written by the former Rough Justice producer Louise Shorter and miscarriage campaigner Paul May, is available for £3.