History > 2008 > UK > Justice (II)

2.30pm GMT

Boy, 15,

guilty of kicking goth woman to death

Thursday March 27 2008
Rachel Stevenson and agencies guardian.co.uk
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk
on Thursday March 27 2008.
It was last updated at 18:45 on March 27 2008.

A boy aged 15 has been found guilty of murdering 20-year-old Sophie Lancaster, who was kicked to death in a park because she was dressed as a goth.

Brendan Harris attacked Lancaster when she begged him and a gang of four other youths to stop beating her boyfriend, 21-year-old Robert Maltby.

Preston crown court heard the assaults were unprovoked and the couple from Bacup, Lancashire were set upon because of their appearance.

Lancaster, a gap-year student, died from serious head injuries two weeks after the attack in Stubbylee Park, Bacup last August. Her injuries were so severe that when paramedics arrived they could not tell whether she was male or female.

The trial heard that the couple were walking home from a friend's house when they walked past a group of teenagers in the park. The group was initially friendly and chatted to them, but five of the youths then turned on Maltby.

Harris took a flying kick at the art student's head before others members of the gang punched, stamped and jumped on his head until he was unconscious. They laughed and encouraged each other all the while.

Lancaster knelt down, holding her boyfriend's head on her lap and calling for help. She was then attacked. Paramedics found them lying side by side, covered in blood and unconscious.

Maltby was in a coma and has not fully recovered. Today he said he had lost his "entire world" and wished the gang had killed him instead. "I just really wish that she had just legged it and got out of there and waited until they had left and come back, but I just wish she had left me to die if I'm honest."

Lancaster's mother, Silvia, described the murder as a tragedy not just for her family and those responsible, but for society.

"I am convinced Sophie was killed simply because of the way she looked. She did not necessarily conform to the ideals of those who took her life. If we are to make any sense of Sophie's death, perhaps we should see it as an opportunity to examine how all of us, particularly younger people, can become blinkered.

"I believe that today, more than ever, we need to show respect, compassion and tolerance for those whose appearance and culture differs from our own."

After the verdict, the trial judge, Anthony Russell QC, lifted an order banning identification of Harris, and of Ryan Herbert, 16, who pleaded guilty to Lancaster's murder.

Harris denied the murder charge but pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm to Maltby. He had drunk two litres of cider, a bottle of lager and "quite a lot of" peach schnapps, the court heard.

Herbert admitted the murder before he was due to go on trial, and pleaded guilty to assaulting Maltby.

    Boy, 15, guilty of kicking goth woman to death, G, 27.3.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/mar/27/goth.murder

3pm GMT

'Wannabe gangster' jailed for 30 years for doorstep shooting

Thursday March 13 2008
Press Association
Guardian.co.uk
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Thursday March 13 2008.
It was last updated at 15:50 on March 13 2008.

A "wannabe gangster" was jailed for life today after being convicted of shooting dead a pregnant neighbour in a cold-blooded execution after a doorstep row.

An Old Bailey jury took three hours to find Thomas Hughes guilty of the murder of Krystal Hart, 22, on Good Friday last year. There were cheers from the public gallery as the verdict was delivered.

Thomas Hughes was later jailed for life with a minimum term of 30 years.

Hughes, 41, of Stonells Road, Battersea, south London, had denied the shooting, saying another man was responsible. But parts of the incident, including the sound of two shots and Hughes hurrying away, were caught on CCTV.

Hart died instantly after being shot through the head. A second bullet was fired into her temple after she collapsed in her doorway.

The prosecution said that Hart was executed by the petty criminal and drug dealer in revenge, after her boyfriend, David Siveter, had written down Hughes's car registration earlier that day.

Hart was two months' pregnant and had recently given up her job as a temporary secretary in the parliamentary office of then deputy prime minister John Prescott.

She had lived in the upstairs housing association flat in Belleville Road, Battersea, for a year.

A few months after moving in with her mother Debbie Penfold, she clashed with her downstairs neighbour Angie Brewer, 53.

The two women were involved in an ongoing county court action, and the CCTV was installed to provide evidence.

Brewer was blamed for causing most of the trouble, and was due to be given an asbo. Hart's pregnancy was not known to Brewer or Hughes.

Brewer, who was said to complain regularly to the authorities, was friendly with Hughes, a loner who lived nearby in a dilapidated house with his wheelchair-bound 81-year-old mother.

The prosecution said he was infatuated with Brewer, but he told the court he thought of her as a big sister.

Hughes had kept out of the dispute until witnessing a confrontation between Brewer and Hart's boyfriend in April, when Siveter wrote down his registration number. Brewer called the police, and then telephoned Hughes, who returned with a gun looking for Siveter.

He banged at Hart's door, demanding that she open it, calling out: "Come out bitch".

Brewer, who could be heard pleading "No", became hysterical as shots were fired, the court was told.

Aftab Jafferjee, prosecuting, said: "This defendant did what he did precisely because of the underlying animosity and him empathising with Angie Brewer".

Hughes had been heard telling her: "I will do anything for you, I will cut off my arm or leg if I had to".

Jafferjee said that Brewer would have "a huge moral responsibility".

Hughes was jailed for 18 months in 1997 for stabbing another woman in the neck with a screwdriver.

He admitted causing actual bodily harm to former friend Angela Murphy, following a row in her car. However, he told the jury at the Hart trial that "it was only a scratch".

Hughes said he made a living by selling cannabis and stolen goods.

After the verdict, detective chief inspector Colin Sutton said that "Hughes was a bit of a Walter Mitty character. He wanted to impress Angie but grossly over-reacted".

    'Wannabe gangster' jailed for 30 years for doorstep shooting, G, 13.3.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/mar/13/ukcrime.ukguns

Teenager 'murdered young woman for dressing as a Goth'

March 12, 2008
Times Online
Fran Yeoman

A drunken 15-year-old boy kicked and stamped a young woman to death because she was dressed as a "Goth", a court heard today.

The teenager was part of a five-strong gang, who acted “like a pack of wild animals” as they “savagely and mercilessly” attacked Sophie Lancaster, 20, and her boyfriend, a jury was told.

The boy, whose trial for murder began today at Preston Crown Court, was accused of starting the violence, with a flying kick to the head of Robert Maltby, Miss Lancaster's 21-year-old boyfriend.

The jury heard that the gang, “encouraging each other and laughing”, then punched, stamped and jumped on the art student's head until he was unconscious.

Michael Shorrock, QC, opening the case for the prosecution, said that Miss Lancaster, a gap-year student, pleaded with them to stop.

Witnesses to the attack, which took place last August, in Stubbylee Park, Bacup, Lancashire, told police that she tried to pull them away.

But as she kneeled down, cradling her boyfriend’s head on her lap and calling for help, the accused and another teen, who has already pleaded guilty to murder, turned on her.

The second boy, aged 15, at the time, kicked her in the head. The accused joined in to kick and stamp on her head, the court heard. None of the teenagers involved can be named because of their age.

One witness, a 15-year-old boy who had tried to stop the violence, told police: “It looked like they were running over and just kicking her in the head, jumping up and down on their head or summat...they were kicking her all over her head.”

Mr Shorrock said the gang had turned on the young couple simply because they were Goths or “moshers” - and dressed differently to them.

When paramedics arrived, the injuries to her face were so severe that they could not tell what sex Miss Lancaster was. She died in hospital nearly a fortnight later.

Mr Maltby survived the attack but has not made a full recovery.

The accused and four other youths, two aged 17 and one 16, have already pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm to Mr Maltby. But the accused denies murder, saying he took no part in the attack on Miss Lancaster.

Mr Shorrock, told the jury: “Shortly after midnight on Friday August 10, 2007, these five defendants, all teenagers from the Bacup area, acting like a pack of wild animals, savagely and mercilessly attacked and beat unconscious, first a young man called Robert Maltby.

“And then when his girlfriend Sophie Lancaster tried to help him, this defendant together with another young man attacked her and beat her into unconsciousness.

“The attack was totally unprovoked. It would appear that Mr Maltby and Miss Lancaster were singled out, not for anything they had said or done, but because they dressed differently to the defendant and his friend.”

    Teenager 'murdered young woman for dressing as a Goth', ts O, 12.3.2008, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article3538222.ece

Robert Verkaik: How civil liberties have suffered since 2001

Saturday, 8 March 2008
The Independent


Labour's inexorable assault on the civil liberties once freely enjoyed by British citizens makes uncomfortable reading for a nation that prides itself on exporting democracy and justice all over the world.

Many of the restrictions were rushed through under the cloak of the "war on terror" while others have been rolled out to allay the fears of those who believe the country is under siege from antisocial behaviour.

But the most controversial have been the Government's attempt to restrict legitimate debate by curbing peaceful demonstration.

The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 was introduced in 2006 to silence the five-year peace protest of Brian Haw outside the Houses of Parliament by prohibiting unlicensed demonstrations within 1km of the buildings of the legislature. It meant protesters who might previously have received a warning, could be arrested.

Those laws quickly had their impact, leading to the arrest of Maya Evans and Milan Rai at the Cenotaph for reading out the names of UK soldiers and civilians killed in the war in Iraq.According to the human rights group Liberty, the Act also widens the scope of Asbos by allowing unaccountable groups to seek them against individuals, and creates a new criminal offence of trespass on a "designated site" on grounds of national security.

Specific provisions were also brought in against animal rights protesters. The crime of "economic sabotage" not only extended the criminalisation of violent and unlawful protesters but was so broadly drafted as to make criminals of many peaceful protesters. Free speech has been one of the most obvious victims, with offences of "encouragement" and "glorification" of terrorism making careless talk a crime.

Meanwhile, the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 has extended the offence of incitement to racial hatred to cover religion, threatening to seriously undermine legitimate debate.

But perhaps Labour's most spectacular own goal was the rough ejection of Walter Wolfgang, 83, from the Labour conference in 2005 for accusing Jack Straw of talking "nonsense".

    Robert Verkaik: How civil liberties have suffered since 2001, I, 8.3.2008, http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/robert-verkaik-how-civil-liberties-have-suffered-since-2001-793121.html

We shall (not) overcome...
Nuclear protest survived six Tory governments. But not New Labour

Fifty years after historic march, protest camp at atomic weapons base is outlawed in a new blow to civil liberties

Saturday, 8 March 2008
The Independent
By Kim Sengupta

It survived six Tory governments, the end of the Cold War and the rise and fall of mass marches against the British nuclear deterrent. But after 50 years in which the tradition of peaceful demonstration has been maintained outside the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston, the New Labour era has finally done for one of the most famous symbols of protest in British political history.


Today would have seen the latest gathering of the band of women who have assembled on the second Saturday of each month since the 1980s to object to the continuing development of the United Kingdom's nuclear deterrent. Instead, following a High Court ruling this week, the protest tents are being removed, demonstrators are being threatened with arrest and "no camping" signs are being erected.

From being a symbol of the right to protest, Aldermaston has become the latest testament to the desire of successive New Labour governments to curtail the right to assemble, demonstrate and object to government policy.

Evidence from the Ministry of Defence to the High Court cited "operational and security concerns". In their High Court appeal, legal representatives for the Aldermaston women argued that the by-law which ostensibly took effect last May banning "camping in tents, caravans, trees or otherwise" amounted to an unlawful interference with freedom of expression and the right of assembly guaranteed by articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights. David Plevsky, appearing for the Aldermaston Women's Peace Camp, said the new regulations were "criminalising the peaceful, traditional and regular activities of the AWPC".

It cut no ice. Before the ruling, Sian Jones a member of the peace camp, said: "If we don't win this review our very existence will be under threat. But there are also wider implications for the long-held right to protest, which is such an important part of British society. Aldermaston has been known as a place of protest for the last 50 years, and this year is the 50th anniversary of the first CND march there." That battle has now been lost.

As a result of the heavy-handed prohibition of a long-running series of protests which have never resulted in violence, a march this Easter to Aldermaston – intended to commemorate the pioneering protest of 1958 – has now taken on a wholly contemporary significance. After a series of assaults on the right to protest around Westminster and beyond, the 2008 trek through Berkshire is set to become the latest chapter in the fight to wrest back civil liberties that New Labour appears determined to take away.

The CND is planning a 50th anniversary day of action on Easter Monday, when the atomic weapons establishment is to be surrounded by a "human chain" to highlight what it says is the stifling of legitimate protest. The police have warned that anyone causing an obstruction during that protest is likely to be arrested and prosecuted.

Kate Hudson, the chairperson of CND said: "We feel this is an extremely serious matter where the long-established and hard-won right to protest is now under attack. People are extremely worried about the weapons of mass destruction being produced at Aldermaston and it is unrealistic of the Government to think that they will not take part in expressing their views. "We hope that on Easter Monday people will not only come because it is the 50th anniversary of the first march but also to show the need to defend their civil liberties."

One campaigner planning to take part, 57-year-old Margaret Jefferson, from west London, said: "I think it is essential that people make a stand on this issue. I had stayed at that peace camp as have so many others without posing any threat to anyone. What is this Government afraid of, what do they think we will do?

"We live in a very dangerous world as it is and with the end of the Cold War there is even less justification for nuclear weapons. As long as these weapons are here there is the risk that a version of them will come into the hands of terrorists."

One of the most famous figures to participate in 1958 is too frail to be there on Easter Monday. But there is no questioning his ongoing commitment to the protest and outrage at the modern Labour Party's complicity in its suppression.

Michael Foot, the former Labour leader, who marched with his late wife, the actress and author Jill Craigie, said last night that he was "deeply saddened" to hear of the camp being closed down, and especially dismayed that this should happen under a Labour government.

"We thought the cause was right and just and we were glad to take part in these marches," Mr Foot said. "I think it is wretched that they are now thinking of shutting down the camp after it had been goingsuccessfully for more than 20 years and I am sure Jill would have felt the same way as well.

"The governments at the time sometimes behaved very badly towards these protesters who were simply exercising their rights in a peaceful way. But these were Tory governments, the Labour Party supported them as I recall, I was the leader at the time. But times seem to have changed."

    We shall (not) overcome... Nuclear protest survived six Tory governments. But not New Labour, I, 8.3.2008, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/we-shall-not-overcome-nuclear-protest-survived-six-tory-governments-but-not-new-labour-793123.html

3.30pm GMT

Man who killed family with hammer to serve at least 38 years

Thursday March 6 2008
Guardian.co.uk
Anil Dawar and agencies
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Thursday March 06 2008.
It was last updated at 16:31 on March 06 2008.

A 33-year-old man has been told he will serve a minimum of 38 years in prison after being found guilty of bludgeoning a family of three to death.

Pierre Williams sexually assaulted his former partner Beverley Samuels, 36, and her daughter Kesha Wizzart, 18, before beating them to death with a hammer.

Fred Wizzart, 13, was found dead in the same room as his mother at their home in Manchester last July.

Williams swore at the jury on hearing the first guilty verdict today and tussled with seven security guards who dragged him out of court before the rest of the guilty verdicts were read out.

The qualified gym instructor had a history of sexual violence against women, Manchester crown court heard earlier.

A former girlfriend testified that she had twice been bound and gagged before being raped by the "evil" Williams.

The prosecution told the jury that Samuels and her family had been bludgeoned to death with a 2lb (900g) engineering hammer in a "coldblooded execution" to satisfy Williams's perverted sexual pleasure.

Samuels, a nurse at Manchester royal infirmary, was sexually assaulted before receiving at least seven blows to the head.

Kesha had her hands tied behind her back before being killed in the same manner.

Her brother was found dead under a blood-soaked duvet with severe head injuries.

Samuels lived with her son in the Fallowfield area of the city, but Kesha lived with her father in Cheshire.

Tragically, she had decided to sleep at her mother's house on the night she was killed after returning from London on a late train.

The teenager appeared on ITV's Young Stars in Their Eyes talent contest in 2004 and had won a scholarship to study law at Manchester University.

Williams had denied three murder charges and two of sexual assault, although he admitted having sex with Samuels on the night of the murders and fondling Kesha, with her consent, in her bedroom.

He blamed the murders on a "hooded figure" lurking in the house.

    Man who killed family with hammer to serve at least 38 years, G, 6.3.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/mar/06/ukcrime2

4pm GMT

Man jailed for killing woman on first date

Wednesday March 5 2008
Press Association
Guardian.co.uk
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Wednesday March 05 2008.
It was last updated at 16:41 on March 05 2008.

A fitness trainer was jailed for life today for murdering a woman on their first date.

Kate Beagley, 32, was killed in a frenzied attack as she sat on a park bench at a beauty spot overlooking the river Thames in May last year.

Her naked body was found four days later with 31 stab wounds to the face and neck.

Today at the Old Bailey, Karl Taylor, 27, of Covent Garden, central London, was found guilty of her murder and told he must serve a minimum of 30 years in prison.

After his arrest, Taylor led police to Beagley's body dumped in nettles in Oxhey Wood, north of London.

He had driven her there in the boot of her grey VW Golf car, which Taylor told police he had intended to steal when he met her.

The trial heard Taylor had gone on the date armed with a knife, which he placed up his sleeve as he sat with Beagley in the Roebuck pub in Richmond Hill, south-west London.

Taylor claimed in court she committed suicide in front of him by prodding her head forward on to his knife after telling him of her problems.

He demonstrated her actions using an envelope instead of a knife, and told the jury: "I realised she passed away. I was crying profusely. I lay on the grass and looked at the sky."

The pair had met days earlier at a club in central London and exchanged phone numbers.

During their date, Beagley, of Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, appeared to be ignoring him, the court was told.

Peter Clarke QC, prosecuting, said Taylor told police he stabbed Beagley during an argument after telling her: "All I want is your car."

He told police: "She pushed me away. She was grabbing me and I stabbed her in the throat. I constantly and consistently cut her in the neck because she was going for my face."

Taylor removed her clothes and washed her body with mineral water before dumping it, the court heard. He later showed off the car to friends and family, and sold Beagley's mobile phone to a friend.

    Man jailed for killing woman on first date, G, 5.3.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/mar/05/ukcrime2

2pm GMT

Romantic graffiti artist jailed for amorous train tags

Elizabeth Stewart and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday March 5 2008
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Wednesday March 05 2008.
It was last updated at 14:00 on March 05 2008.

A love-struck graffiti artist who habitually immortalised his heart's desire in paint was jailed for two years today.

For weeks "persistent offender" Raymond Agbegah sprayed trains and stations with massive multi-coloured 3.7m (12ft) banners declaring: "I love Emma".

It was the latest in a series of nocturnal defacement of railway property spanning nearly a decade, resulting in hundreds of thousand of pounds of damage.

But the court also heard that the graffiti artist's recent spate of vandalism had a tragic history.

Richard Gowthorpe, defending, revealed that his client had tried to clean up his act, particularly after his girlfriend, Emma Petts, had given birth to their first child last year.

But following the infant's death, Agbegah "regressed" to his old ways, Gowthorpe said.

Petts is now heavily pregnant and is expecting their daughter in a month, but Agbegah's sentence means it is unlikely he will be at the birth.

Unfortunately for the IT student, Southern Trains, South West trains and Network Rail, was in no mood to sympathise, pointing to their hefty clean-up bill in excess of £32,000.

Armed with his girlfriend's name and Agbegah's trademark tag "milk" - one that led to a conviction for criminal damage eight years earlier – the police soon discovered their culprit.

Chris Stimpson, prosecuting, said when officers paid him a visit they found him snuggled up in bed with the Emma of his graffiti. Helpfully on the bedside table was an envelope decorated with his distinctive "milk" tags.

The 24-year-old, of Streatham, south London, a member of the Streatham-based FV Crew graffiti gang, admitted three counts of criminal damage reflecting his activities throughout last October.

Passing sentence, Judge Martin Beddoe said graffiti was an expensive nuisance, causing "disruption, delay and considerable expense" to the transport authorities and the travelling public.

"Such behaviour calls for a sentence of deterrence to persuade you and others who might be inclined to do so from indulging in this sort of behaviour," he said. "It is done for no better purpose than for your own satisfaction and self advertisement without regard to anyone else."

In a stern rebuke, the judge said his record of 58 previous convictions - a dozen of them for graffiti attacks - left no doubt he was a "persistent offender" who had repeatedly breached a 10-year anti-social behaviour order imposed in 2003 to "curb" his activities.

He was clearly "indifferent" to the effects his behaviour and on others, as witnessed by him breaching police bail following his arrest for his latest offences.

"If you want to live outside the bounds of ordered society then you can live outside that society for a while. It is a matter for you how much you value your freedom and it is a matter for you whether you stop this cycle of offending. If you don't the sentences will just get longer," warned the judge.

"You are frankly getting too old for this. And what you have done and continue to do does not warrant the love and the care Miss Petts has sought to bestow on you."

The court heard Agbegah's various tags were found across a large swathe of the rail network in London with Streatham, Streatham Hill and Norbury stations, and rail depots at Norbury, North Dulwich, Strawberry Hill and Parsons Green, on his shopping list of targets.

Stimpson said Southern Trains was the worst hit by the defendant's crimes, suffering no less than £23,650 damage in just four weeks - with £8,500 of that carried out on a single night.

Network Rail was the next worst affected with a £4,500 bill, while South West Trains had to spend £4,000 cleaning up after him.

    Romantic graffiti artist jailed for amorous train tags, G, 5.3.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/mar/05/ukcrime1

11.45am GMT

Youths killed man in row over chocolate wrapper

Tuesday March 4 2008
Press Association
Guardian.co.uk
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Tuesday March 04 2008.
It was last updated at 11:45 on March 04 2008.

Two teenagers were facing jail terms today after they admitted killing a promising graduate in a row over litter.

Evren Anil, 23, died from serious head injuries after being threatened with a knife and punched to the ground.

The argument started after one of the youths threw a chocolate bar wrapper through the victim's car window in Crystal Palace, south-east London, in August last year.

A 16-year-old youth from Thornton Heath, south-east London, yesterday pleaded guilty to manslaughter and knife possession as his trial was due to begin at the Old Bailey.

His plea could only be reported today after his 17-year-old co-defendant, from Tottenham, north London, also admitted the two charges today.

Judge Ann Goddard told the pair, who cannot be named because of their ages: "It seems to me custody is the appropriate outcome."

Sentencing will take place at a later date after the judge hears legal argument about the precise version of events, which is disputed.

The 17-year-old admits throwing a wrapper through the window of Anil's car, the court heard.

Jo Korner QC, prosecuting, said: "Having done so the defendant was confronted by the deceased and a verbal dispute ensued.

"There was some physical contact between the two involving the deceased grabbing the defendant's T-shirt. This resulted in the defendant punching the deceased."

She said the 17-year-old also admitted taking out a knife to frighten Anil but claimed he did not intend to use it, then passed it to the other teenager.

Korner said the 16-year-old's version of events, that "at no stage did he threaten Anil with a knife" and only used the weapon to threaten another man, was not accepted.

Further details of what the younger boy admitted were not read out in court.

    Youths killed man in row over chocolate wrapper, G, 4.3.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/mar/04/ukcrime1

2.30pm GMT update

Nurse who killed four patients jailed for life

Tuesday March 4 2008
Guardian.co.uk
Peter Walker and agencies
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Tuesday March 04 2008.
It was last updated at 14:25 on March 04 2008.

A staff nurse who murdered four elderly patients with lethal injections of insulin was today jailed for life and told he would serve a minimum of 30 years.

"You are, I have absolutely no doubt, a thoroughly evil and dangerous man," the trial judge, Justice Griffith Williams, told Colin Norris.

The judge told the 32-year-old from Glasgow, who showed no emotion as he was led from the dock, that the motive for the killings remained a mystery.

"You are an arrogant and manipulative man with a real dislike of elderly patients," he said.

"The most telling evidence was that observation of one of your female patients, Bridget Tarpey, who said: 'He didn't like us old women'."

The judge said Norris disliked elderly people because they needed too much care. He said he had formed the belief that Norris was "essentially lazy".

"Only you know why that dislike was so much that you decided to kill. Despite months of evidence, I am no wiser as to your motive."

Norris, who was convicted yesterday, was given four life sentences with a minimum term of 30 years for each of the murders, and a 20 year sentence, to run concurrently, for a separate offence of attempted murder.

Colleagues at Leeds General Infirmary became suspicious after Norris correctly predicted what time 86-year-old Ethel Hall would die in November 2002, telling a colleague she would die at 5.10am on his shift.

The court heard he also told a colleague that whenever he worked nights someone would die, and it was just his luck that he would have to do the paperwork. Hall, who was recovering well after a hip operation, was found in a coma later on the same shift.

Dr Emma Ward ordered blood tests on Hall. When the sample showed she had 12 times the normal level of insulin, an investigation was launched which also looked at the deaths of Doris Ludlam, 80, and Bridget Bourke, 88, who fell into comas on the same ward that Hall had been in and later died in June and July 2002.

The death of 79-year-old Irene Crookes at St James's Hospital, also in Leeds, while Norris was working there in October 2002 was also investigated. All three women had been in hospital for hip operations.

He also tried to murder Vera Wilby, 90, but she survived the coma which followed the unnecessary insulin injection.

The judge said he was sure Norris was not trying to carry out mercy killings.

"Although Mrs Ludlam was at risk of imminent death from other symptoms, not one of your five patients, all of whom were non-diabetic, was terminally ill," he told Norris.

"There cannot be any suggestion you were motivated to hasten their ends to spare them suffering; indeed, there was no evidence that any of them was suffering apart from the pains that the elderly sometimes have.

"I suspect you enjoyed the power that ending a life gave you, choosing the elderly because they were defenceless. Then, emboldened by the fact that nobody suspected what was happening, it is clear you embarked on what in truth was a campaign of killing – a campaign which would, no doubt, have continued had not experienced medical staff been alerted to what was happening."

Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Gregg of West Yorkshire police said only Norris knew why he had killed. "I am convinced he would have gone on to kill more patients had he not been stopped in his tracks," he said.

    Nurse who killed four patients jailed for life, G, 4.3.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/mar/04/nhs.ukcrime

3pm GMT update

Nurse convicted of killing four patients

Monday March 3 2008
Guardian.co.uk
David Batty and agencies
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Monday March 03 2008.
It was last updated at 15:01 on March 03 2008.

A nurse was today convicted of murdering four elderly patients with lethal doses of the diabetes drug insulin.

Colin Norris, 32, who worked at two hospitals in Leeds, was also found guilty of the attempted murder of another elderly woman.

The trial at Newcastle crown court heard that suspicions were raised when Norris, of Elgin Terrace, Glasgow, predicted the death of a patient. The patient, Ethel Hall, slipped into a fatal coma later on his shift.

Hall, 86, from Calverley, Leeds, was recovering after hip surgery at Leeds General Infirmary at the time of her death. Tests found around 12 times the normal level of insulin in her blood.

West Yorkshire police looked into earlier deaths while he was working at the infirmary and the city's St James's Hospital. They found three other women, none of whom were diabetics, had died from insulin overdoses.

The staff nurse was found guilty of the murders of Doris Ludlum, 80, of Pudsey, Bridget Bourke, 88, of Holbeck, at the infirmary between June and December 2002, and the murder of Irene Crooks, 79, of Leeds, at St James's in October 2002.

The jury also found him guilty of the attempted murder of Vera Wilby, 90, of Rawdon, at the infirmary. She recovered from an unexpected hypoglycaemic attack in 2002.

Norris was arrested on December 11 2002, but released on bail pending further inquiries. His employers, the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, suspended him the next day.

He was eventually charged with the four murders and one attempted murder on October 12 2005.

The prosecutor, Robert Smith QC, told the jury there were "remarkably common facts" between Norris's five victims, who had all undergone surgery for hip fractures.

Each was in poor health and could be regarded as a "burden to nursing staff", Smith said. Each suffered from hypoglycaemia between four and 12 days after surgery.

"Colin Norris deliberately administered these drugs to these five women," said Smith. "He did so intending to kill them."

While training, Norris had indicated he did not like looking after "geriatric patients", Smith added.

Smith told the court Norris predicted to a colleague the time at which Ethel Hall would die and said that someone always died on his shifts.

The staff nurse told the court that this was a joke and that as a nurse you "laugh about things you probably shouldn't laugh about".

Throughout the case he denied all the charges.

Norris will be sentenced tomorrow morning.

    Nurse convicted of killing four patients, G, 3.3.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/mar/03/nhs.ukcrime

Profile: Colin Norris

The 'personable young man' who became a killer

Monday March 3 2008
Press Association
Guardian.co.uk
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Monday March 03 2008.
It was last updated at 15:30 on March 03 2008.

To friends and colleagues, Colin Norris appeared a dedicated and caring nurse.

He was described as a "personable, decent young man, close to his granny". But Norris harboured a more sinister side - a growing dislike of elderly people.

A clear motive for his killing spree remains unclear, although a general dislike of the elderly was mentioned as a possible factor by prosecutors.

He enjoyed a normal upbringing and came from a loving, caring and supportive family.

Norris's mother, June, and his stepfather, Raymond Morrison, live in a terraced house in the Milton area of Glasgow. The couple have lived there for several years, although Norris is not thought to have lived with them. His grandmother lives in a neighbouring street.

A neighbour said: "He is a personable, decent young man, close to his granny. He used to be a regular visitor."

Another neighbour added: "He was always independent. I think he went away when he was quite young to study or get a job."

He was born in Glasgow in February 1976 and raised in Partick. Academically he was fairly average, achieving six GCSEs at school. He then studied, working in travel agencies before switching careers to train as a nurse.

He has never been unemployed and always had an interest in nursing, even before college, friends said.

He studied for a higher nursing diploma at Dundee University's school of nursing and midwifery in September 1998, aged 22.

In January and September 1999 he attended lectures on diabetes and the treatment of diabetic patients with insulin. He graduated in June 2001.

While training as a nurse he worked on ward 11 at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, where he learned about the management of patients with diabetes.

In 1999 he went to ward 7 of Royal Victoria Hospital in Dundee, where he cared for elderly patients. He also did placements in nursing homes.

It was while working in these institutions that his general dislike of elderly people may have begun.

Police established that Norris would have had access to patients during his work placements, although there is no evidence to suggest he harmed the patients there.

In October 2001 he worked on ward 36 at the Leeds General Infirmary.

Colleagues said there was nothing to distinguish him - his only vice was popping out onto the fire escape for a cigarette during night shifts.

He was transferred to the orthopaedic ward at St James's Hospital before Ethel Hall's death.

During police questioning in December 2002, he told officers "he seemed to have been unlucky over the last 12 months".

Police later tried to jog his memory of the individual patients. He told them he could recall Vera Wilby's distinctive hair style but did not recall the others, even when shown photographs. When he was charged he said: "I have never done any of it."

    The 'personable young man' who became a killer, G, 3.2.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/mar/03/nhs.ukcrime1