Is Colin Norris Innocent?

The recent conviction of Lucy Letby in the longest and one of the most horrific murder trials in British criminal history has led to comparisons with other so-called angels of death, in particular Beverley Allitt, Harold Shipman, and Colin Norris.

Shipman was found guilty of fifteen murders. Exactly how many people he killed is uncertain, but due to the circumstances of the murder of his last victim, there is absolutely no doubt of his guilt. The evidence against Allitt was overwhelming; she is now held in an institute for the criminally insane and is unlikely ever to be released. Unlike Allitt and Letby, Norris was convicted of murdering elderly patients, including an 86 year old woman with a fractured hip. This is a major cause of death in very elderly people, especially women whose bones become fragile due to calcium loss. Typically, the victim will fall over, fracture her hip or some other large bone, contract an opportunistic infection such as pneumonia, and die.

Norris worked at two Leeds hospitals. His four alleged female victims died between June and December 2002. A fifth alleged victim survived, and of course there is speculation that he killed many more, all with insulin.

After an initial remand in custody, he was granted bail, not something one would normally expect for someone accused of serial murder.

In March 2008, after a trial lasting five months, he was convicted by a majority verdict. Unlike Letby, Norris is not a superficially attractive individual; his Wikipedia entry makes grim reading but adds unironically that he may have been inspired to murder his charges by Jessie McTavish, a fellow Scot who was convicted of murdering a patient in the same manner. AND CLEARED ON APPEAL.

Norris appealed his convictions unsuccessfully, but in December 2014 a BBC Panorama programme raised serious concerns about the evidence against him, in particular the expert evidence relating to clusters of hypoglycaemia in the very elderly. A juror has also spoken out saying that he now has serious doubts about the conviction.

Norris applied to the Criminal Cases Review Commission in October 2011. This organisation works incredibly slowly but when it takes up a case it is thorough beyond all meaning of the word. On February 12, 2021, it announced that it had referred his case back to the Court Of Appeal. There was a Colin Norris website; the domain has lapsed, but there is still a campaign running on Twitter. Hopefully, this case will be heard by the Law Lords early next year if not sooner, whatever the outcome.