A nurse who was jailed for life for the murders of four elderly patients and attempting to murder a fifth has lost appeals against his convictions at the Court of Appeal.
Colin Campbell, formerly known as Colin Norris, was found guilty in 2008 of killing Doris Ludlam, Bridget Bourke, Irene Crookes and Ethel Hall.
They were inpatients on orthopaedic wards where Campbell worked in Leeds in 2002 before they died, and had developed severe, unexplained hypoglycaemia.
Campbell denied any wrongdoing and said he did nothing to cause hypoglycaemia in any of the patients.
His case was referred to the Court of Appeal in London by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) in 2021, which said previously that the prosecution relied on “wholly circumstantial” evidence.
In a 14-day hearing earlier this year, Campbell’s lawyers argued new expert knowledge meant the convictions were now unsafe while lawyers for the Crown Prosecution Service said much of the same evidence presented was heard by the jury at trial.
In a ruling on Thursday, judges dismissed his appeals.
In their judgment, Lady Justice Macur, Mr Justice Picken and Sir Stephen Irwin said: “We have no doubt about the safety of any of the five convictions. The appeals are dismissed.”
Campbell was convicted in 2008 after a five-month trial at Newcastle Crown Court, during which time a total of 20 experts gave evidence.
The nurse unsuccessfully appealed against his conviction in 2009 and applied to the CCRC in 2011.
Michael Mansfield KC, for Campbell, told an appeals hearing earlier this year the jury had asked whether there were other cases of patients suffering from “sudden and profound” hypoglycaemia in any of the Leeds teaching hospitals after Campbell stopped working.
Four such cases had since been identified, Mr Mansfield told the court, with the deaths recorded between January 2003 and August 2005.
The barrister also noted the “remarkably similar” ages of all nine cases, with the patients being between 78 and 93, but this “was not discussed” at the trial.
But Lady Justice Macur, Mr Justice Picken and Sir Stephen Irwin said these cases did not help Campbell’s appeals.
They said in their judgment: “On our own analysis, the ‘extra’ cases serve to underline rather than undermine this aspect of the phenomena that are said to be distinctive in those cases of administration of exogenous insulin.”
James Curtis KC, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said during the appeals hearing that there was “very little evidence of any sudden and severe hypoglycaemia when it is caused naturally” and “seemingly no evidence” of this in the patients Campbell was convicted of killing.
He said the medical literature shows that sudden and unexpected severe hypoglycaemia “remains rare”, while the possibility of dying by natural causes was “fully explored” at trial.
The appeals judges found that evidence given by an expert witness for Campbell, who said new medical knowledge means the women may have died from natural causes, was “inconsistent with, and fails to address the phenomena evidenced” in the patients.
They continued: “We arrive at that conclusion satisfied that the expert witnesses called by the respondent have, without misunderstanding the facts or the science and within the legitimate parameters of their respective expertise, responsibly interrogated the hypothesis against the facts with an open mind and understanding of their obligation to inform the court of any change of opinion.
“In so far as they have conceded a theoretical possibility, this does not advance the appeal.”
A CCRC spokesperson said: “We referred Mr Norris’s convictions to the Court of Appeal in February 2021 after a thorough review, which concluded there was a real possibility the Court of Appeal would find his convictions unsafe.”
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