Colin Norris

Colin Norris
Background information
Also known as	Angel of Death
Born	1976 Glasgow
Killings
Number of victims:	4
Country	England
Date apprehended	2002

Colin Campbell Norris (b. 1976, Glasgow)^[1] was a Scottish nurse and convicted serial killer from the Milton area in Glasgow^[1][2] who was convicted of murdering four elderly patients in a hospital in Leeds, England, in 2002. He was sentenced in 2008 to serve a minimum of 30 years in prison. Doubts have since been raised about his conviction by, among others, Prof Vincent Marks, a leading expert on insulin poisoning.

Crimes

Norris worked at Leeds General Infirmary and St James's Hospital. Suspicions were raised when Norris predicted the death of one patient, Ethel Halls, saying she would die at 5:15am. Her condition worsened badly that morning around 5am and she died some weeks later. He stated at the time: "it is always in the morning when things go wrong".^[3] When questioned by police about this and three other patients who had died while he was on duty, he said "he seemed to have been unlucky over the last 12 months".^[3] The four patients were 79, 80, 86 and 88 years old.^[4] The police investigated 72 cases in total.^[4]

Trial

The trial took 19 weeks and the jury deliberated for 4 days. Norris was convicted by a majority verdict on 3 March 2008 of the murder of four women, and the attempted murder of a fifth aged 90.^[5] He was sentenced to life imprisonment, and ordered to serve a minimum term of 30 years in prison the following day.^[6] Judge Mr Justice Griffith rejected any possibility that Norris was practising euthanasia because none of the victims was terminally ill.^[4] He told Norris when sentencing:

"You are, I have absolutely no doubt, a thoroughly evil and dangerous man. You are an arrogant and manipulative man with a real dislike of elderly patients. The most telling evidence was that observation of one of your patients, Bridget Tarpey, who said 'he did not like us old women'."^[4]

Referred to in the British press as the "Angel of Death", Norris killed his victims by injecting them with high levels of insulin.^[3]

Jessie McTavish, a nurse convicted and then cleared in 1974 for the murder of an 80-year-old patient with insulin, has been identified as a possible inspiration for Norris. He once attended a lecture on her case while studying at nursing college.^[1]

New Concerns over Conviction

On October 4th 2011, new concerns were raised about the safety of Norris's conviction. Prof Vincent Marks - a leading expert on insulin poisoning - said the jury at Norris's trial was led to believe by experts that a cluster of hypoglycaemic episodes, among people who were not diabetic, was sinister. The professor said international medical studies carried out in the years since the 35-year-old Glaswegian was convicted told a different story. "Looking at all the evidence, all I can say is I think Colin Norris's conviction is unsafe," Prof Marks said.

Prof Marks says the four patients picked out by the experts after Mrs Hall's death "were all at very high risk of developing spontaneous hypoglycaemia" because they had risk factors such as malnutrition, infection and multi-organ failure. ^[7]

Legal observers have noted that if the medical evidence is discredited then the case against Norris collapses, there being little motive and no forensic evidence linking him to the crimes.

Similar cases

In the aftermath of Norris's conviction, the British media drew comparisons with Doctor Harold Shipman, Britain's most prolific serial killer who killed more than 250 patients by lethal injections. Det Ch Supt Chris Gregg who worked on the Shipman case and led the Norris investigation was convinced that Colin Norris would have gone on to kill considerably more people if he was not stopped in his tracks.^[8]

In 2006 Benjamin Geen, a nurse at a hospital in Banbury, Oxfordshire, was given 17 life sentences for murdering two of his patients and attacking 15 others. He used a variety of injections which often included insulin.^[9]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Stokes, Paul (2008-03-02). "Colin Norris: From student to deadly abuser". The Daily Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/03/nnurse303.xml. Retrieved 2010-04-30. 
2. ^ Ford, Steve (2008). "Could Colin Norris have been stopped?". Nursing times 104 (10): 8–9. PMID 18416393. 
3. ^ ^{a b c} Tom Chivers (2008-03-03). "Colin Norris, 'Angel of Death' nurse, convicted". London: The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/03/nnurse503.xml. Retrieved 2008-03-03. 
4. ^ ^{a b c d} Jenkins, Russell (2008-03-05). "Killer nurse Colin Norris must serve at least 30 years". The Times (London). http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article3481873.ece. Retrieved 2010-04-30. 
5. ^ "Nurse guilty of killing patients". BBC News. 2008-03-03. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/7267409.stm. Retrieved 2008-03-03. 
6. ^ "Killer nurse must serve 30 years". BBC News. 2008-03-04. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/7276700.stm. Retrieved 2008-03-04. 
7. ^ Norris case: Murder convictions 'unsafe' "Colin Norris case: Murder convictions 'unsafe'". The BBC (London). 2011-10-04. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-15068743,Colin Norris case: Murder convictions 'unsafe'. Retrieved 2011-10-19. 
8. ^ Stokes, Paul; Britten, Nick (2008-03-04). "Colin Norris, 'Angel of Death' nurse, jailed for life". The Daily Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1580651/Colin-Norris,-'Angel-of-Death'-nurse,-jailed-for-life.html. Retrieved 2010-04-30. 
9. ^ Echoes of Sensational Case From 1970s - Health - redOrbit

External links

• Profile of Norris
• Convictions Unsafe

Persondata
Name	Norris, Colin
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1976
Place of birth	Glasgow
Date of death
Place of death