Colin Norris Loses Appeal Over Leeds Patient Murders

Colin Norris, formerly known as Colin Campbell, has lost his latest appeal against convictions for the murder of four elderly patients and the attempted murder of a fifth, all of whom developed unexplained hypoglycaemia while in his care on orthopaedic wards in Leeds in 2002. The Court of Appeal rejected Norris's arguments that new medical knowledge could point to natural causes for the patients' conditions, maintaining there was no doubt about the safety of any of the five convictions. The appeal had been referred by the Criminal Cases Review Commission due to concerns about the circumstantial nature of the original evidence and reliance on expert opinion. Prosecutors argued that the cluster of hypoglycaemia cases was extremely rare and that Norris was the only common factor present before each incident. This ruling is seen as significant for similar cases involving medical evidence and circumstantial proof. Norris, who has always denied wrongdoing, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2008 and had previously lost an appeal in 2009.