Profile: nurse with deadly disdain for the elderly

A staff nurse who was convicted of murdering four elderly patients and attempting to murder another with overdoses of insulin may be responsible for three more deaths, it was alleged yesterday.

Colin Norris, 32, who was motivated by his dislike for caring for geriatric patients, was described by detectives as a serial killer in the process of “perfecting his craft” who would have continued killing.

His spree came to an end when he inadvertently raised suspicions by predicting the death of one woman, who slipped into a fatal hypoglycaemic coma during his shift at Leeds General Infirmary. His 86-year-old victim was found to have been injected with an insulin dose so great that it left her brain unable to function.

The Glasgow-born nurse, who treated the lengthy trial with a nonchalance bordering on arrogance, was expressionless in the dock at Newcastle Crown Court when the jury found him guilty. He will be sentenced today.

After he was led to the cells Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Gregg, who led the three-year police investigation, suggested that Norris could be responsible for the deaths of three other patients.

He said: “Prompt action stopped a serial killer in his tracks. Norris was growing in confidence. He believed he was perfecting his craft and if he had not been caught he would have carried on. More elderly patients would have been poisoned and more would have died. Why? Because he enjoyed it.”

In addition to the five charges on which he was successfully prosecuted Norris was arrested on suspicion of killing a patient. However, the Crown Prosecution Service decided against charging him because there were “complicating factors”.

Two other deaths were ascribed initially to natural causes but police believe unsuspecting doctors could have been misled. No further action was possible because there had been no post-mortem examinations.

Norris graduated from the University of Dundee with a diploma in nursing and was 25 when he took a job as a staff nurse with the Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust.

For 15 months, from October 2001 until his suspension in December 2002, he worked on orthopaedic wards at Leeds General Infirmary and St James’s.

The young Scot is remembered by colleagues as “a nice, friendly lad”, a hard worker with a dry sense of humour who “wouldn’t hurt a fly”.

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