:00:15. > :00:19.June Morrison makes this 8-hour June Morrison makes this 8-hour
:00:19. > :00:23.round trip to Durham once a month visit her son. She would like to see
:00:23. > :00:28.him more but can't. It does hurt that people can see that I've
:00:28. > :00:38.brought up a monster. Her son is a maximum security prison, serving
:00:38. > :00:44.at least 30 years. He is no inmate, he is a convicted
:00:44. > :00:48.This is Leeds, where in 2002 Colin This is Leeds, where in 2002 Colin
:00:48. > :00:52.Norris, a man with no history of violence or any apparent motive, was
:00:52. > :00:58.said to go on a six-month killing spree, murdering a series of
:00:58. > :01:03.patients in his care. He was branded a serial killer, a monster,
:01:03. > :01:07.Angel of Death. But tonight BBC Scotland reveals the new evidence
:01:07. > :01:17.which casts serious doubt on his convictions and paves the
:01:17. > :01:18.
:01:18. > :01:20.Colin Norris to be set free. .
:01:20. > :01:25.This summer nurse Rebecca Leighton This summer nurse Rebecca Leighton
:01:25. > :01:31.was thrust into the spotlight after a series of suspicious
:01:31. > :01:36.insulin-related deaths. The media scrutiny was intense. And, despite
:01:36. > :01:40.protesting her innocence, Rebecca Leighton was charged. Six weeks
:01:40. > :01:45.later, all charges were dramatically dropped. She is not the first nurse
:01:45. > :01:50.to claim they have been wrongly accused of poisoning patients
:01:50. > :01:57.This is Colin Norris, lashing out at This is Colin Norris, lashing out at
:01:57. > :02:01.the press during his five-month murder trial in 2008. The case
:02:01. > :02:06.captivated the nation. Here was nurse charged with poisoning
:02:06. > :02:13.vulnerable patients with lethal doses of insulin. He was portrayed
:02:13. > :02:18.by the prosecution as a callous, cold-blooded killer. But by his
:02:18. > :02:23.side every day of the trial was his mother, June Morrison, convinced of
:02:23. > :02:30.his innocence. When you are brought in for the verdict,
:02:30. > :02:36.then? The juror stood up, very softly spoken, and says - she
:02:36. > :02:40.do you find the not guilty, and they said guilty. I
:02:40. > :02:45.just thought: did I hear? Did I hear that right? And she repeated it.
:02:46. > :02:52.I said: yes, I did hear it right. And I just wanted the ground to open
:02:52. > :02:56.up and take me away. I felt - I ill.
:02:56. > :03:00.I was scared, very, very scared, and I was scared, very, very scared, and
:03:00. > :03:09.then I said I'm going to phone my Mum but of course by the time I had
:03:09. > :03:11.phoned my Mum it was news. She says "I know, I know".
:03:11. > :03:12.This man was stopped in his tracks This man was stopped in his tracks
:03:12. > :03:13.This man was stopped in his tracks after he had killed four and
:03:13. > :03:14.after he had killed four and after he had killed four and
:03:14. > :03:18.This man was stopped attempted to kill another person.
:03:18. > :03:22.Harold Shipman went on to hundreds of people. He wasn't
:03:22. > :03:30.stopped in his tracks. I'm convinced Colin Norris would have gone on
:03:30. > :03:34.kill considerably more people. Police said he appeared to kill
:03:34. > :03:39.because he was irritated by them. He appeared to have no other
:03:39. > :03:44.than being irritated by the frail women. June Morrison has been
:03:44. > :03:52.fighting to clear her son's name. I meet her after she has met him in
:03:52. > :03:56.prison. REPORTER: How was it? was quite good. He was good. She
:03:56. > :04:03.tells me this is the first case where a convicted
:04:03. > :04:07.himself turns out to be the victim of a grave miscarriage of
:04:07. > :04:11.But would this mother do anything for her son? I definitely wouldn't
:04:11. > :04:14.lie for him and Colin knows that. If I did have any doubts I wouldn't
:04:14. > :04:18.have contacted yourselves, no. I would have still went down to see
:04:18. > :04:23.him, I mean I'm still his mother, but if I had the least wee bit of
:04:23. > :04:30.doubt I wouldn't be doing what doing. Born in 1976, Colin was
:04:30. > :04:34.brought up in a close-knit working class family in Glasgow. As a child,
:04:34. > :04:41.he was close to his mother and grandmother and pursued a keen
:04:42. > :04:50.interest in theatre. He actually performed in the King's Theatre with
:04:50. > :04:53.Princess Margaret. She was the star attraction then.
:04:53. > :05:03.It was one of the proudest days of It was one of the proudest days of
:05:03. > :05:06.my life, to see my son graduating with a degree in nursing.
:05:06. > :05:08.But just 18 months after graduating, But just 18 months after graduating,
:05:08. > :05:09.But just 18 months after graduating, he was a murder suspect. Thinking
:05:09. > :05:11.he was a murder suspect. Thinking he was a murder suspect. Thinking
:05:11. > :05:15.But just 18 months back now, we were a bit naive
:05:15. > :05:19.because we thought the British justice system, it's the best in the
:05:19. > :05:27.world. Surely this will, you know, sort itself out, that this can't be
:05:27. > :05:32.happening. You know, it was like a nightmare, it was like a bad dream.
:05:32. > :05:36.I've investigated miscarriage of I've investigated miscarriage of
:05:36. > :05:40.justice cases before, but never when the prisoner protesting his
:05:40. > :05:44.innocence is a convicted serial killer. How could it be that not
:05:44. > :05:48.just one but five cases against him are wrong? The case against Colin
:05:48. > :05:54.Norris can be divided into two clear sections and the first centres on a
:05:54. > :06:03.single blood test taken from a gravely ill patient. The story
:06:03. > :06:11.begins at Leeds General Infirmary on the night of 20th November 2002.
:06:11. > :06:18.recovering from a hip operation. But at 5.00am she was discovered by
:06:18. > :06:22.nurse Colin Norris in a coma with extremely low blood sugar.
:06:22. > :06:26.Throughout that morning medics battled to get Ethel Hall's
:06:26. > :06:29.hypoglycaemia under control and to bring her out of the coma that she
:06:29. > :06:34.was in. There was no obvious explanation tour her plummeting
:06:34. > :06:39.blood sugar levels so very quickly doctors began to fear that
:06:39. > :06:42.have been poisoned with insulin. Insulin is injected by diabetics
:06:42. > :06:48.because their own bodies are unable to regulate their blood sugar
:06:48. > :06:52.levels. But if too much is given, the blood sugar drops too low, the
:06:52. > :06:58.patient becomes hypoglycemic and can fall into a coma, potentially
:06:58. > :07:02.leading to brain damage and death. Ethel Hall was not diabetic, so a
:07:02. > :07:07.blood sample was sent to the lab for investigation. The results showed
:07:07. > :07:12.massive levels of insulin in her blood, so the police were called in.
:07:12. > :07:18.Ethel Hall would never regain consciousness and died 21 days after
:07:18. > :07:20.slipping into a coma. This was now murder inquiry.
:07:20. > :07:21.The inquiry would be led by the The inquiry would be led by the
:07:21. > :07:22.The inquiry would be led by the senior detective who had conducted a
:07:22. > :07:23.senior detective who had conducted a senior detective who had conducted a
:07:23. > :07:29.The inquiry would be led review into the case of Harold
:07:30. > :07:34.Shipman, the GP who murdered more than 200 of his own patients. When
:07:34. > :07:39.police heard that Colin Norris had apparently predicted Ethel Hall's
:07:39. > :07:47.death, he was arrested and for questioning.
:07:47. > :07:49.This is duty solicitor hails Jim This is duty solicitor hails Jim
:07:50. > :07:54.Littlehales sitting next to Colin. He was with him throughout the
:07:54. > :08:01.interviews. He told me all along that he had done nothing, he was not
:08:01. > :08:05.guilty of an offence. was that of a man saying I am not
:08:05. > :08:12.guilty. Did it ever come across that he had anything to hide? Never
:08:12. > :08:18.came across that he had hide to me. A large dose of insulin
:08:18. > :08:21.which resulted in her death. I just know that I didn't do anything.
:08:21. > :08:22.I thought this was a joke. I I thought this was a joke. I
:08:22. > :08:23.I thought this was a joke. I thought: is it serious Colin, is
:08:23. > :08:24.thought: is it serious Colin, is thought: is it serious Colin, is
:08:24. > :08:28.I thought this was there somebody playing a joke on
:08:28. > :08:34.you? He says: no Mum, I was at the police station for 29 hours. I just
:08:34. > :08:39.couldn't believe it. He was crying like a child that was sobbing, and
:08:39. > :08:44.couldn't speak. You know, he was the breath - he was crying that hard
:08:44. > :08:50.that he couldn't speak. He just could not believe that they had
:08:50. > :08:55.Colin had never been in any form of Colin had never been in any form of
:08:55. > :08:59.trouble with the police whatsoever. He had I don't think ever been
:08:59. > :09:02.inside a police station really, apart from perhaps to the front
:09:02. > :09:06.counter on an odd occasion, as all have, but that was the limit of
:09:06. > :09:13.his experience. And never police cell? Never.
:09:13. > :09:18.arrested? Never arrested, never a police cell. He has been found
:09:18. > :09:24.with a quantity, that much insulin in her. How do you feel that he
:09:24. > :09:27.co-operated during interview the police? Colin and I took
:09:27. > :09:30.view right at the outset of the interviews that he had absolutely
:09:30. > :09:33.nothing to hide, that he should not exercise any right to remain silent,
:09:33. > :09:39.and that he should co-operate absolutely fully throughout, and
:09:39. > :09:44.did so. That insulin that was delivered on the 18th has been
:09:44. > :09:47.injected into Ethel Hall, and that subsequently caused her death.
:09:47. > :09:52.enough I see what you are but at the same time, if she
:09:52. > :09:56.injected with it, then surely it would have - if you say, like,
:09:56. > :10:01.somebody came and injected me that I would say to somebody: wait a
:10:01. > :10:05.minute, what are you doing? It appeared she had been poisoned with
:10:05. > :10:08.such a large dose of insulin that it could not have been accidental, but
:10:08. > :10:14.there was no direct evidence pointing to Colin Norris, and those
:10:14. > :10:17.who knew him could was in the frame at all.
:10:17. > :10:22.Emily Cox worked with Colin in the Emily Cox worked with Colin in the
:10:22. > :10:27.months leading up to his arrest. Colin was portrayed in the
:10:27. > :10:34.newspapers as a hater of elderly people. That was not the Colin that
:10:35. > :10:40.I knew. Colin was quite fair to everybody, I thought. He was just
:10:40. > :10:46.friendly and polite, humorous and respectful, I think. During the
:10:46. > :10:49.trial, Colin Norris was represented by barrister Paul Williams.
:10:49. > :10:50.If you have in the back of your mind If you have in the back of your mind
:10:50. > :10:51.If you have in the back of your mind the very terrible nature of the
:10:51. > :10:51.the very terrible nature of the the very terrible nature of the
:10:51. > :10:55.If you have in accusation that he was facing, the
:10:55. > :10:57.fact that people are willing to come forward and say: no, hang
:10:57. > :11:01.minute, I know this guy and he not like that, I think that
:11:01. > :11:05.an awful lot for him really. If anybody needed anything, he was
:11:05. > :11:09.always there first, giving a hand. Making sure his patients were
:11:09. > :11:13.after. The patients absolutely loved him. There was one patient in
:11:13. > :11:18.particular I remember really liked Colin, and she just wanted to grab
:11:18. > :11:24.his ears and give him a big kiss. He was really an outgoing, friendly,
:11:24. > :11:27.warm, nice person. I bonded with him really from when I first met him.
:11:27. > :11:32.Immediately of an Ethel Hall's death, Colin Norris was suspended
:11:32. > :11:39.from work. He was forced to sell the house he had recently bought and the
:11:39. > :11:45.pressure of being a murder took its toll. He was so angry and
:11:45. > :11:49.frustrated because - my personal view about the police down there was
:11:49. > :11:56.they had Colin as their suspect and they were doing
:11:56. > :11:59.everything in their power to make him their prime - you know, the
:11:59. > :12:04.questioning and everything, they decided that it was Colin
:12:04. > :12:11.was it. They were going to go out all guns firing.
:12:11. > :12:17.with the police was interpreted as arrogance, a necessary trait perhaps
:12:17. > :12:21.for a murderer. Is there no one, your boss or anyone that can tell
:12:21. > :12:24.why I was arrested the first time? You were told at the time why you
:12:24. > :12:32.were arrested. I was told because I was in charge of a team of patients.
:12:32. > :12:35.So you can arrest somebody for that, for doing their job? He could be
:12:35. > :12:39.quite blunt about putting his of view across but I wouldn't call
:12:39. > :12:43.that arrogance because his point was always valid, it was always a valid
:12:43. > :12:48.question that he wanted to ask of you. He maybe just didn't sugar coat
:12:49. > :12:53.it. We are not going to get into a debate about that. I just want a
:12:53. > :13:00.straight answer. We are not going down that road. Because
:13:00. > :13:07.want to talk about that. I want to. Can you get me your boss then?
:13:07. > :13:09.Colin Norris was said to have predicted the time of Ethel's death.
:13:09. > :13:10.I think Colin Norris in particular I think Colin Norris in particular
:13:10. > :13:10.I think Colin Norris in particular came into the frame because of some
:13:10. > :13:11.came into the frame because of some came into the frame because of some
:13:11. > :13:17.I think Colin Norris of the words that he had said
:13:17. > :13:22.that night. A phrase something along the lines of: Ethel doesn't look
:13:22. > :13:26.very well to me, I wouldn't be surprised if she goes off tonight.
:13:26. > :13:30.It's just something that is said. You know that your patient is not
:13:30. > :13:35.right and people have made comments, well, if that was the case, every
:13:35. > :13:39.one of us would be in the jail. This so-called prediction was not direct
:13:39. > :13:42.evidence against Colin Norris and neither was Ethel Hall's blood test
:13:42. > :13:47.since, according to the police's own investigations, there were at
:13:47. > :13:51.16 other nursing staff working close by that night. But it provided the
:13:51. > :13:55.motivation for the police to target their inquiries around Colin Norris
:13:55. > :14:02.and on the wards in which he worked, and this would give them their
:14:02. > :14:05.They started working back through They started working back through
:14:05. > :14:09.patient notes, reviewing all the cases over the previous two years
:14:09. > :14:16.which involved hypoglycaemia, even though they had all been classed
:14:16. > :14:23.the time as natural deaths. What the prosecution did was they approached
:14:23. > :14:29.a team of medical people who, together, as a panel, reviewed
:14:29. > :14:34.excess of 70 patients to see if they were suspicious deaths. The panel
:14:34. > :14:42.identified four new cases in two different hospitals. Doris Ludlam,
:14:42. > :14:46.Bridget Bourke and Irene Crookes all died after falling into hypoglycemic
:14:46. > :14:50.comas. Vera Wilby had a similar episode but recovered and died
:14:50. > :14:55.months later from unconnected causes. The experts said the deaths
:14:55. > :15:03.were non-accidental and that they linked him by way of his duties in
:15:03. > :15:07.both the LGI and St James' Hospital as being the one common denominator.
:15:07. > :15:11.Colin Norris was the only nurse on shift on these wards around the time
:15:11. > :15:15.of all five incidents. Like Ethel Hall, the other four cases had
:15:15. > :15:19.severe episodes of unexplained blood sugar, but because they were
:15:19. > :15:25.old and frail, none of their conditions had aroused
:15:25. > :15:27.How am I supposed to have done it How am I supposed to have done it
:15:27. > :15:32.without anybody else noticing when we've already established that
:15:32. > :15:38.there's, like, 24 or 28 patients a ward plus other members of staff,
:15:38. > :15:42.plus people walking on and off? It's all circumstantial, it all
:15:42. > :15:47.him in the right place at the time but that only matters if you
:15:47. > :15:51.have got five patients. If you've only got one, then it doesn't
:15:51. > :15:56.matter at all. So the strength of the evidence was that, to have a
:15:56. > :16:02.cluster of five cases of severe hypoglycaemia was so rare, it
:16:02. > :16:06.mean murder. I'm putting it to you that you've murdered those women by
:16:06. > :16:11.injecting them with insulin and that you attempted to murder Vera Wilby
:16:11. > :16:15.by injecting her with insulin. I know, you've already said. I'm not
:16:15. > :16:18.going to admit to anything that I've not done and I never murdered
:16:18. > :16:23.anybody, didn't inject anybody anything and I don't think
:16:23. > :16:28.facts are good enough. I'm sorry. But they were good enough to
:16:28. > :16:37.him with four murders and then attempted murder, and send him to
:16:37. > :16:41.I was physically and violently sick. I was physically and violently sick.
:16:41. > :16:47.On and off for hours until Raymond came down, and I was still
:16:47. > :16:56.through the night as well. I just could not believe, but very, very
:16:56. > :17:00.frightened at the same time, very scared.
:17:00. > :17:04.So there were two main planks of So there were two main planks of
:17:04. > :17:08.evidence: first, the Ethel blood test; second, this rare
:17:08. > :17:17.cluster of deaths. What about the first plank? Just how reliable are
:17:17. > :17:23.these types of blood test? Marks believes Ethel Hall's test
:17:23. > :17:29.does indicate foul play. I am satisfied that, as certain as I can
:17:29. > :17:36.be, that somebody at some time, and I cannot tell you at what time, I
:17:36. > :17:41.cannot tell you how much or even what type of insulin, somebody gave
:17:41. > :17:48.her insulin and that that explains the clinical picture, it explains
:17:48. > :17:49.But these blood tests, or But these blood tests, or
:17:49. > :17:50.But these blood tests, or immunoassays, as they are called,
:17:50. > :17:51.immunoassays, as they are called, immunoassays, as they are called,
:17:51. > :17:56.But these blood tests, can sometimes get it badly wrong. In
:17:56. > :18:01.America, after a series of false immunoassay results, Jennifer Rufer
:18:01. > :18:06.learned this to her cost. Jennifer Rufer went through a year of
:18:06. > :18:13.chemotherapy, a hysterectomy and doctors removed part of a lung. Then
:18:13. > :18:17.she learned she never had cancer. The test was wrong. One in every 250
:18:18. > :18:26.results can be erroneous, can be wrong, can be misleading,
:18:26. > :18:30.falls positive or false negative in laboratory parlance. Dr Ismail
:18:30. > :18:34.leading authority on this research, conducting extensive research
:18:34. > :18:39.more than 20 years. When you consider we are doing more than
:18:39. > :18:49.million tests in this country - Immunoassay tests?
:18:49. > :18:50.
:18:50. > :18:56.More than 10 million tests, you can work out how many erroneous results
:18:56. > :19:01.are caused each year, which may cause mismanagement, can sometimes
:19:01. > :19:05.cause surgery and treatment for phantom disease. I think I work that
:19:05. > :19:08.out as 40,000. Yes. So you are saying there are around
:19:08. > :19:13.potentially wrong results? That is what I am saying.
:19:13. > :19:19.Every year? Every year. So could the blood test have
:19:19. > :19:22.Ethel Hall's case? Her symptoms fitted medics' suspicions
:19:22. > :19:25.had been poisoned with insulin and the blood test appeared to confirm
:19:25. > :19:35.that but no further blood samples were taken to make sure the
:19:35. > :19:41.test was true. One additional sample taken a few hours earlier or later
:19:41. > :19:46.than the one, the single one which is used, would have been immensely
:19:46. > :19:52.helpful and it wasn't done. Which very unfortunate. None of these
:19:52. > :19:55.cases were investigated as if they were forensic cases. That applies
:19:55. > :20:00.particularly to Mrs Hall there was the suspicion from the
:20:00. > :20:05.very beginning, and all I could is that it's a great shame that
:20:05. > :20:09.was not investigated more thoroughly. But also Dr Ismail
:20:09. > :20:13.thinks there could be a reason for Ethel Hall's symptoms,
:20:13. > :20:20.which could explain the blood test result, a condition called
:20:20. > :20:25.autoimmune hypoglycaemia. I was just a bit concerned that a natural
:20:25. > :20:28.pathology called insulin autoimmune hypoglycaemia, very rare, but you
:20:28. > :20:34.must remember that nurses and doctors injecting insulin
:20:34. > :20:39.patients is also rare, so we are talking about two rare conditions,
:20:39. > :20:43.to exclude insulin autoimmune hypoglycaemia syndrome was also
:20:43. > :20:46.important. But this condition, although rare, cannot be
:20:46. > :20:51.definitively excluded because not all of the available laboratory
:20:51. > :20:55.tests were done. Dr Ismail put this evidence at trial
:20:55. > :20:59.and it raises serious questions over the first plank of the prosecution
:21:00. > :21:05.evidence, the Ethel Hall blood test, but even if you accept that the
:21:05. > :21:07.blood test is right, to Colin Norris you also have to accept
:21:07. > :21:12.the second plank of evidence, that there was a unique
:21:12. > :21:18.cluster of deaths at the hospitals and that Colin Norris was the one
:21:18. > :21:23.common denominator. We looked into that and we found another case,
:21:23. > :21:26.patient BD, who had, after we had looked at her medical records,
:21:26. > :21:33.had very similar signs and symptoms that the prosecution were relying
:21:33. > :21:36.on, to say that some other had been killed, and when we looked
:21:36. > :21:42.into that it was impossible Colin Norris to have done that
:21:42. > :21:48.because he wasn't at the hospital the time, and so, if the prosecution
:21:48. > :21:53.scenario was correct, that these signs of symptoms prove a killing,
:21:53. > :21:55.then there's somebody else there killing and it's not Colin Norris.
:21:55. > :22:01.And amongst the boxes of material And amongst the boxes of material
:22:01. > :22:06.not used in evidence we found another case, that of Lucy Rowell. I
:22:06. > :22:10.had the call on the Saturday morning, and, like I said, saw
:22:10. > :22:12.Grandma on the Friday night, colour in her cheeks, best we had
:22:12. > :22:20.since the operation, and really thought that she was on the road
:22:20. > :22:26.recovery. But just like the others, she developed hypoglycaemia and fell
:22:26. > :22:29.into a coma from which she did not recover. According to her family,
:22:29. > :22:32.soon after Lucy's death detectives knocked on their
:22:32. > :22:36.knocked on their door to they were investigating the case as
:22:36. > :22:40.a potential murder. They was looking at a male nurse that had
:22:40. > :22:45.been working every evening when, you know, Grandma slipped into a coma -
:22:45. > :22:51.Along with the other patients. Along with the other patients that
:22:51. > :22:54.had died and they left us for about ten, 11 months, thinking that
:22:54. > :22:57.Grandma had been murdered and then came back and told thaws the
:22:57. > :23:01.investigation are - told us that the investigation had gone further down
:23:01. > :23:05.the line and that Grandma's case wasn't one and this particular male
:23:05. > :23:10.nurse that they had been pursuing wasn't working the night that
:23:10. > :23:16.Grandma slipped into the coma. And they brought his time sheet. His
:23:16. > :23:21.rota sheet to prove to us that he wasn't working. So she went from
:23:21. > :23:25.being suspicious to non-suspicious. Just because he wasn't working?
:23:25. > :23:29.Yes. Yes. The medical review said Lucy Rowell could also have
:23:29. > :23:32.died from factors not related insulin poisoning, but during the
:23:32. > :23:37.trial the prosecution was accused of using double standards in their
:23:37. > :23:45.selection of cases. Solicitor Moore has reviewed the trial papers
:23:45. > :23:49.and has taken Colin's case on. What it seems to me is, having satisfied
:23:49. > :23:55.themselves that Ethel Hall was murdered, and having put Colin
:23:55. > :23:59.Norris in their minds as the prime suspect for her murder, it seems
:23:59. > :24:05.that they trawled through records looking for evidence of
:24:05. > :24:09.patients who might have died suspiciously, but it seems that
:24:09. > :24:17.only cherry picked those cases Colin Norris was on duty and
:24:17. > :24:19.any others that might have occurred in the hospital.
:24:19. > :24:24.We can now reveal the evidence that We can now reveal the evidence that
:24:24. > :24:28.the jury did not get to hear. were told that this cluster of
:24:28. > :24:33.was so rare, so unusual, that it must mean murder, but new
:24:33. > :24:40.has just emerged which could fatally expose that claim as
:24:40. > :24:45.means that this guilty verdict was reached by a jury in the dark. The
:24:45. > :24:51.world's leading expert on insulin poisoning, Professor Vincent Marks,
:24:51. > :24:54.has produced new scientific evidence about the cluster of four cases. My
:24:54. > :24:59.first impression was that they had hypoglycaemia, and then I thought
:24:59. > :25:05."What's the evidence for insulin?", and the more I went into it,
:25:05. > :25:11.less convinced I was that there was any evidence for insulin. No insulin
:25:11. > :25:15.tests were done on these women and Professor Marks says their severe
:25:15. > :25:21.hypoglycaemia is explained by their underlying conditions. These
:25:22. > :25:27.patients all had other risk factors which included emaciation,
:25:27. > :25:34.starvation, because she hadn't been fed, infection, cardiac failure,
:25:34. > :25:40.renal failure. They were all at very high risk of developing
:25:40. > :25:46.hypoglycaemia. But key to this was the long-held belief that a
:25:46. > :25:49.cluster of hypoglycemic comas in non-diabetics was extraordinary so
:25:49. > :25:53.Professor Marks undertook search of all the new international
:25:53. > :26:00.medical studies carried out since 2008 which he says proves
:26:00. > :26:07.belief is wrong. I was surprised at how very common it is in this
:26:07. > :26:14.particular group of elderly, sick people. In one very detailed survey
:26:14. > :26:20.of thousands of patients, it was up to 10%. In others, it was 5%, and so
:26:20. > :26:26.on, and I thought, well, you know, it's not that rare after all. So if
:26:26. > :26:30.what you are saying is that up to 10% of the elderly, sick - Very
:26:30. > :26:34.elderly, sick, with risk factors, yes. - can have this condition,
:26:34. > :26:40.then a cluster of four or even five patients within the period of a year
:26:40. > :26:46.is not that unusual? It wouldn't unusual if you were looking through
:26:46. > :26:53.a hospital that had several thousand people over the age of 70 who were
:26:53. > :26:57.sick, and so on, over the course of a year, not at all. So
:26:57. > :27:05.opinion then the convictions Colin Norris in these four cases are
:27:05. > :27:10.not safe? I think that using those four cases as evidence of
:27:10. > :27:16.administration, I think is unsafe. And so it can no longer be said for
:27:16. > :27:20.sure that these four cases were down to insulin poisoning, nor that they
:27:20. > :27:24.were so especially rare as to make this so-called cluster significant.
:27:24. > :27:27.Without these cases we are left principally with the Ethel
:27:27. > :27:33.blood test, and there may even be considerable doubt over
:27:34. > :27:38.according to the evidence that heard. Colin Norris will not be
:27:38. > :27:43.eligible for parole until the year 2038. He will be 62. So the question
:27:43. > :27:50.is: has a completely innocent man been wrongly imprisoned as
:27:50. > :27:53.It's my view, from having looked at It's my view, from having looked at
:27:53. > :27:57.the evidence in the case and from my knowledge of Colin that he is an
:27:57. > :28:04.innocent man and this conviction ought to be quashed. The entire
:28:04. > :28:08.case was built on a foundation which is unsound. The new evidence would
:28:08. > :28:12.blow effectively a very large in what was the central plank of the
:28:12. > :28:20.prosecution case. The new scientific evidence is incredibly
:28:20. > :28:25.indeed. I do believe the system will eventually prove that there has been
:28:25. > :28:30.a miscarriage of justice and he will be a free man. Whether it takes
:28:30. > :28:40.another two years, another five years, I don't know, but I do - I've
:28:40. > :28:42.
:28:42. > :28:44.got to believe that that will happen. I've got to believe in that.
:28:44. > :28:46.On the strength of the new evidence On the strength of the new evidence