Nurse loses appeal against 2008 conviction for murder of four patients in Leeds
A nurse found guilty 17 years ago of murdering four elderly patients has been unsuccessful in an attempt to appeal against his convictions.
Colin Campbell was jailed for a minimum of 30 years in 2008 for the murder of four women and attempting to kill a fifth by injecting them with insulin.
They were all inpatients on orthopaedic wards in Leeds where he worked in 2002.
Doris Ludlam, 80, Bridget Bourke, 88, Irene Crookes, 79, and 86-year-old Ethel Hall died from hypoglycaemia, where blood sugar drops dangerously low.
There was no direct evidence against him. The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which referred the convictions to the court of appeal in London four years ago, said the case against him was 'wholly circumstantial'.
Campbell, 49, was alleged to have been present when or shortly before each of the patients suffered hypoglycaemia.
The rarity of such a cluster of cases happening within a short space of time led prosecutors to argue that the nurse must have been responsible.
Campbell, who has changed his name from Norris, had also unsuccessfully appealed against his conviction in 2009.
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