A nurse who murdered and poisoned vulnerable patients in his care, forcing a hospital to the brink of closure, has been jailed for life.
Victorino Chua, 49, described by detectives as a narcissistic psychopath, injected insulin into saline bags and ampoules while working on two acute wards at Stepping Hill hospital, Stockport, in June and July 2011. These were then unwittingly used by other nurses on the ward, leading to a series of insulin overdoses.
The actions of Chua, a Filipino, have raised fears about unqualified foreign nurses working in British hospitals after it emerged that the investigation found inconsistencies in his medical qualifications.
On Monday he was found guilty of murdering Tracy Arden, 44, and Alfred Weaver, known to his family as Derek, who was 83. Another victim, Grant Misell, 41, was left brain-damaged, from which he made a slow but imperfect recovery.
On Tuesday Mr Justice Openshaw sentenced Chua to life in prison with a minimum term of 35 years as his victims’ friends and family looked on at Manchester crown court. Chua showed no emotion as he was told he would be an old man before he was considered for parole.
The judge said: “It is a striking, sinister and truly wicked feature of the case that he did not personally administer contaminated products directly to most of these patients for, having left saline bags and ampoules contaminated with insulin in the treatment rooms, he did not know which nurse would innocently collect them, still less to which patient the nurse would then unwittingly administer the poison.
“Thus, nearly all the victims were chosen at random; it is as if he left it to fate to decide who would be the victim.”
Openshaw said Chua must now pay the price for his dreadful crime. Stifled cries could be heard from the public gallery as Chua was taken down.
Arden, who had multiple sclerosis, was admitted to Stepping Hill for a mild chest infection and would have expected to “sail through this storm”, the court heard. She was pronounced dead eight hours after admission after being treated with a saline ampoule contaminated with insulin.
Weaver was admitted with a chest infection and, after being given a saline drip, “appeared to be in agony, eyes rolling back in his head”. He died 10 days later.
Outside court, Weaver’s siblings Kenneth Graham Weaver and Lynda Bleasdale paid tribute to their brother. “He was a terrific man,” his brother said. “He had an inventive mind. He was a problem-solver.”
Chua was also found guilty of 22 counts of attempted grievous bodily harm, one count of grievous bodily harm, seven of attempting to administer poison and one of administering poison.
Greater Manchester police raised concerns about Chua’s medical qualifications with the Department of Health and the Home Office, as well as contacting the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
Nazir Afzal, who led the Crown Prosecution Service in north-west England from 2011 until earlier this year, said the findings raised the “extremely worrying” prospect that other untrained migrants could be working in British hospitals.
He told BBC North West Tonight on Monday: “In all my 24 years as a prosecutor, I have never escalated concerns to another government department except in this case. I do not know whether there were hundreds or thousands or dozens. What I do know is the opportunities were there for them to lie about their qualifications, to obtain them fraudulently, and to cover up their disciplinary matters.”
Prosecutors told the jury that Chua had taken out his personal frustrations on patients “for reasons truly known only to himself”, but they drew attention to a self-penned letter found at Chua’s home after his arrest.
Described as “the bitter nurse confession” by Chua, he said he was “an angel turned into an evil person” and “there’s a devil in me”. He also wrote of having things he would “take to the grave”.
