Larger-than-life figure inspired respect and fear

Dark practices on night shift at death hospital

The Londoner began work at the hospital near Keighley in 1977 as a night sister. She became a valued member of staff and in 1996 was appointed to a new role as night nurse practitioner.

She viewed herself as hospital matron and frequently referred to the fact she was "in charge" at night, revelling in her status.

Nearly all doctors, nurses and managers who worked with her considered her a highly skilled nurse.

She was calm in a crisis, firm with problem patients and caring to the very sick and their families and worked excessively long hours – on some occasions for 14 straight nights.

She was also a larger-than-life and unconventional character. Standing at 6ft tall, she had cropped hair and wore leather clothes to ride her motorbike.

It was part of hospital folklore that she had once or twice brought a parrot onto a ward to cheer up patients.

But there was also another side to her. She was regarded as a bully by a number of her colleagues and had an "autocratic" management style.

She swore a lot. She treated management structures "with contempt" and "appeared to be able to act with impunity to normal sanctions", according to an inquiry report into her activities.

She did not feel she needed to attend training courses and was loudly critical of others, both doctors and nurses, if she believed they were lazy or incompetent.

Others noticed she changed dramatically after the Omagh bombing in Ulster in August 1998. Her family was on holiday in the area and she was the first voluntary nurse on the scene of the atrocity where 29 people were killed and 300 were injured.

She developed a serious drink problem and her behaviour became increasingly erratic by July 2002 when she went on long-term sick leave.

She complained of a number of pain symptoms, asking to be given painkilling diamorphine. Police investigated if she was addicted but could find no evidence.

Her marriage of more than 20 years to husband Paul, also a nurse, ended and her home at Cowling, near Keighley, was repossessed as she plunged into huge debts. The mother-of-one was suspended and later sacked in 2004 by which time she had entered a spiral of drinking and depression.

She had moved to a small terraced house in Nelson, Lancashire, where she lived alone, apart from her two cats, although she remained supported by a group of friends and colleagues after being charged by police in September 2004.

Her legal team planned to make a vigorous defence at her trial, claiming she only gave painkilling drugs to patients if they needed pain relief and only in therapeutic doses.

But she was found dead at her home in August 2005, aged 52. A coroner found she killed herself accidentally by taking anti-depressants.