A jury was sent home for the weekend yesterday after a third day of deliberations in the trial of a nurse accused of murdering four frail patients.

Staff Nurse Colin Norris, 32, denies murdering the elderly women at two Leeds hospitals in 2002 and attempting to murder another, by giving them doses of insulin.

During the trial at Newcastle Crown Court, the jury was told that suspicions were raised when Norris predicted the death of a patient, who slipped into a fatal coma later in his shift.

Police were alerted and looked into other deaths of non-diabetics who suffered hypoglycaemic comas while Norris was working at the Leeds General Infirmary and the city's St James's Hospital.

He was charged with murdering Ethel Hall, 86, of Calverley; Doris Ludlam, 80, of Pudsey; Bridget Bourke, 88, of Holbeck, Leeds, and Irene Crookes, 79, of Leeds. He was also charged with attempting to murder Vera Wilby, 90, of Rawdon.

The prosecution alleged the deaths featured remarkably common facts'.

William Harbage QC, defending, said the evidence against Norris, of Egilsay Terrace, Glasgow, was circumstantial. The jury will return on Monday.

8:31am Saturday 1st March 2008

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