Saturday, May 18, 2013

Is this nurse serving 30 years for murders that never happened? Compelling new evidence suggests 'Angel of Death' is innocent

Locked away: Colin Norris will serve at least 30 years in prison
Locked away: Colin Norris will serve at least 30 years in prison
To the judge at his trial, Colin Norris was an 'arrogant and manipulative man with a real dislike of elderly patients'. A cold-blooded serial killer, he had been convicted of murdering four elderly women – and almost killing a fifth – by injecting them with insulin.

For his crime he was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in jail. He is serving his sentence in the forbidding, maximum-security jail HMP Frankland, near Durham, alongside Soham murderer Ian Huntley.

Other inmates regularly contaminate his food with bodily fluids and sharpened foil from coffee jars that can be fatal if swallowed.

But now, compelling new evidence suggests not only that Colin Norris, the former nurse who was dubbed 'the angel of death', is innocent, it also hints that his 'victims' in two Leeds hospitals were not  murdered at all – that they died instead of natural causes.

The prosecution at Norris's trial in Newcastle in 2008 said the women all died from hypoglycaemia, extreme low blood sugar, which causes the brain and other major organs to cease functioning.

It was claimed this condition almost never arises spontaneously – suggesting it was triggered by injections of insulin.
There was no direct evidence that Norris injected them with anything.

But it was argued that he was the 'common factor' in their deaths because he was looking after them all when they died. The odds against this happening by chance were therefore 'overwhelming'.
But now, a series of scientific studies has shown that hypoglycaemia often arises in elderly patients admitted to hospital for other reasons – in as many as ten per cent of cases.


In the frame: Colin Norris, adamant that he has committed no crime, is interviewed by West Yorkshire Police
In the frame: Colin Norris, adamant that he has committed no crime, is interviewed by West Yorkshire Police
At the same time, an investigation by Paul May, the veteran campaigner against miscarriages of justice, and Louise Shorter, the former producer of the BBC Rough Justice programme, has revealed that at least six women who were never looked after by Norris at all died from hypoglycaemia in the hospitals where he worked in the same period.

Yet Operation Bevel, the West Yorkshire police inquiry into the alleged murders at Leeds General Infirmary and St James's, took no account of these further deaths. Apparently officers were fixated on Norris as a suspect. Their chief superintendent had reviewed the Harold Shipman case, after which police were criticised for not catching Shipman soon enough.
Norris was jailed for life in 2008. Now 37, he has already lost one appeal which was fought on narrow legal technicalities.
But the fresh evidence unearthed by May and Shorter is now being 'actively pursued' by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which has the power to refer the case back for a further appeal.
Yesterday, speaking by phone from prison, Norris made a moving statement to The Mail on Sunday, relayed via his mother, June Morrison. 'All I want is for the facts to speak for themselves,' he said. 
'I am not the angel of death. I am an ordinary man trapped in a living nightmare. I never killed anyone.
Irene Crookes
Survived: Norris was charged with the attempted murder of Vera Wilby, 90
Sentenced: Norris was jailed for the murder of Irene Crooks, left, and attempted murder of Vera Wilby
'My family and friends have stood by me, and for that I thank them from the bottom of my heart. But they have done so because they know the truth – not only that I am incapable of committing them, but the crimes I am convicted of never took place.'
Mrs Morrison, 57, a secretary who lives in a cosy house with a well-tended garden on the northern side of Glasgow with Norris's stepfather, Raymond Morrison, said her son decided to train as a nurse when he did a first aid course while working as a travel agent after leaving school.
'He just seemed to have an aptitude for it,' she told The Mail on Sunday.
'He had always been a very caring person. When he was a teenager, he used to take kids in wheelchairs to watch the football. This image of him as a callous, heartless person who hated the elderly – it bears no relation to the truth.'
He studied at Dundee University, obtaining both a nursing degree and a higher diploma, before moving to Leeds to work.
There, Mrs Morrison said, senior staff soon grew to trust him, and were happy to leave him in charge.
He bought a house and began to take extra agency shifts to help pay his mortgage.
'Victim': Bridget Bourke
'Victim': Doris Ludlam
'Victims': Norris was convicted or mudering 89-year-old Bridget Bourke, left, and Doris Ludlam, 80, right
Norris's 'nightmare' began early on the morning of November 20, 2002, when Ethel Hall, 86, a patient recovering from an operation to repair a  broken hip on ward 36 at Leeds General Infirmary, was found unconscious. Mrs Hall had a long history of losing consciousness for mysterious reasons which had never been diagnosed, and had suffered from pernicious anaemia for 20 years.
In fact, she had passed out the previous afternoon, when she had been given oxygen and recovered.
This time, however, there was no reviving her. It was Norris, who was covering the night shift, who discovered she was suffering from severe hypoglycaemia, and she was given glucose injections.
Her blood sugar level returned to normal, but she did not recover, dying three weeks later.
Murdered: Ethel Hall fell into a coma following a massive dose of insulin
Murdered: Ethel Hall fell into a coma following a massive dose of insulin
Meanwhile, a lab in Guildford,  Surrey, found that her blood contained a high level of insulin, which, it was claimed, could not have  happened naturally.
he police began an inquiry. It was led by Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Gregg, who just 18 months earlier had reviewed the 22 West Yorkshire deaths associated with Britain's most prolific serial killer, Dr Harold Shipman.
Shipman is thought to have killed some 250 patients in his care by  giving them overdoses of heroin.
The Shipman case had made police extremely sensitive to possible  murders by medical personnel because he had been allowed to get away with his crimes for years.
They decided Norris was a suspect on the basis of remarks he made to colleagues on the night Mrs Hall fell ill, claiming they were 'sinister'. Yet all they consisted of were statements such as, 'I don't think Ethel looks right,' and that he had a 'funny feeling' about her. None of his colleagues told police they believed he had contributed to her death.
On December 11, Norris was arrested, questioned and held for  29 hours. He answered all questions freely, denying that he gave her  an insulin injection, or did anything else to harm her.
The first Mrs Morrison knew of what had happened to her son was when he phoned her after his release, on police bail. 'I couldn't believe I was hearing him right,' she said.' He was trying to be calm, but I came off the phone and had a good cry. Then we went down to Leeds to see him.'
The Guildford lab test was to be a mainstay of the case against Norris. Mrs Hall, it suggested, did have a high level of insulin in her blood. In some people this can happen naturally, but when it does, there is  normally a high level of another substance, too, an enzyme called  C-peptide – which was not present in the sample from Mrs Hall.
However, normally two tests should be done on separate samples to confirm such a result.
Crime scene: The General Infirmary in Leeds, where Bridget Bourke and Doris Ludlam died
Crime scene: The General Infirmary in Leeds, where Bridget Bourke and Doris Ludlam died
Moreover, the lab had breached its own protocols by conducting its single test on a sample taken from Mrs Hall after she had been given glucose – which, say experts, can distort the results.
Now, new evidence has emerged that she may have been suffering from a condition known as insulin auto-immune syndrome, which causes insulin levels to rise dramatically without C-peptide. There is a simple chemical test available which establishes whether this syndrome is present. It was not carried out.
But at least there was evidence that Mrs Hall's blood contained insulin. In the other four cases which the Operation Bevel team examined over the following three-and-a-half years while Norris remained on bail, all that could be said with confidence was that the patients had hypoglycaemia – these patients' insulin levels had not been tested at all.
It was a massive inquiry, involving more than 60 officers. Norris was suspended from working as a nurse, which 'deeply frustrated' him. But he found work instead as a steward at events such as rock concerts, and travelled in Europe extensively  – though every three months he had to return to Killingbeck police station in Leeds.
He went back for one such visit in October 2005, expecting to be bailed again: 'He thought the case was going nowhere,' Mrs Morrison said. This time, however, he was charged with the murder of Mrs Hall and three other women: Bridget Bourke, 89; Doris Ludlam, 80; and Irene Crooks, 78; together with the attempted  murder of Vera Wilby, 90.
'I wasn't allowed to see him that day,' Mrs Morrison said. 'He was taken to Wakefield high security prison. When I was eventually allowed to visit him, he was numb, petrified.'
Operation Bevel: St James's University Hospital was one of the two hospitals where Norris worked as a nurse
Operation Bevel: St James's University Hospital was one of the two hospitals where Norris worked as a nurse
Finally, six months later, he was freed on £100,000 bail. His trial, which lasted more than five months, and involved a lot of very technical scientific evidence, did not begin until two years after he was charged.
Mrs Morrison rented a flat in Newcastle for herself and her son while the hearing went on. 'Right to the end, he was convinced the jury would find him not guilty. I don't think he was ready for the verdict.
'I couldn't actually see him from the public gallery when the forewoman started to read the verdicts out. I heard her say 'guilty' to the first one, the attempted murder, and then it was as if everything was in slow motion. I didn't really hear the other verdicts, though I could see the reporters rushing to leave to  get their stories out.
'They'd already taken him down when I tried to stand up, and then my legs gave way. I collapsed.'
'Angel of Death': Colin Norris is usually locked in his cell for 15 hours a day
'Angel of Death': Colin Norris is usually locked in his cell for 15 hours a day
For Norris, it was, of course, far worse. As a convicted killer of elderly women, he is terrified about possible reprisals from other inmates in prison.
'He's always looking over his shoulder and tries to make sure there's no one else in the showers when he has one,' Mrs Morrison said. 'He has learnt to stand up for himself, not to be bullied. He was always very gentle. His personality has had to change.'
In the early days of his sentence, he discovered that other prisoners were tampering with his food. Now, whenever possible, he and two other prisoners cook their own meals.
He is usually locked in his cell for 15 hours a day. After trying unsuccessfully for two years, he has recently been allowed to begin study for an Open University business course. His letters reveal a highly intelligent man, engaged in all the details of trying to clear his name, as well as being emotionally close to those he loves.
'There's no way I'd be able to get through this without you,' he wrote in a Mother's Day card this year.
'As cheesy as it sounds, you truly are one in a million. Thanks again for your love and support.'
The new evidence includes an opinion from Professor Vincent Marks, one of the world's leading authorities on insulin poisoning. He states that far from being extremely rare, spontaneous hypoglycaemia is relatively common – especially in patients with other risk factors of the kind displayed by all the patients Norris is supposed to have killed.
That five women developed it while he was on duty was, therefore, 'unsurprising'. At least three recent peer-reviewed studies bear out this  conclusion.
As for the other women who died from the condition whose cases have been unearthed by Mr May and Ms Shorter, they include two from the period after Norris was suspended, and others who never met him.
Target: In the early days of his sentence, Norris discovered prisoners were tampering with his food
Target: In the early days of his sentence, Norris discovered prisoners were tampering with his food
Mr May, co-author of A Jury Blinded By Science, a booklet about the case to be published this week, compared Norris's conviction to that of Sally Clarke, the solicitor jailed for life after two of her children died from cot death.
Recently, Norris described his plight in a poem about prison. 'The mask that I wear, to pretend everything's okay, gets harder to put on, day after day,' it reads. 'In the prime of my life, no longer a youth, more time lost, for a crime I didn't commit. Fear constantly increasing, as behind these bars I sit.'
A West Yorkshire police spokesman said that he could make no comment, other than Norris had been convicted as charged and lost his first appeal.
DAILYMAIL

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