Innocent Murder ; The Trial of Sister Jessie McTavish, Edinburgh 1974 (Four Scots Trials Book 2)

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In 2011 Louise Shorter, the former producer of BBC's Rough Justice, and journalist Mark Daly produced the documentary A Jury in the Dark, arguing that there were logical, non-criminal explanations for all the deaths. [78] They and professor Marks claimed that Ethel Hall's hypoglycaemic arrest could have been caused naturally by ' auto-immune syndrome'. [73] This claim was later conclusively discounted by the Criminal Case Review Commission in 2021, when they concluded that "there is no dispute that she was murdered by the injection of insulin" and said that natural hypoglycaemia was evidently not a possible explanation in her case. [71] The possibility of auto-immune syndrome having caused the women's arrests had also already been considered and rejected at the trial. [73] During research for the film, however, Daly stated he discovered an additional death at Leeds General Infirmary which police had initially been investigating as a potential murder carried out by a male nurse, however; the death "went from suspicious to non-suspicious", when police learned that Norris was not on duty at the time. [79] Norris's mother has tried to prove her son innocent, saying: "Either I am the mother of Scotland's worst serial killer or mother to the victim of the country's most terrible miscarriage of justice". [80] [81] After watching the BBC programme the sister-in-law of victim Bridget Bourke said that she was still convinced of Norris's guilt. [81] a b c d e Norfolk, Andrew (17 October 2007). "Nurse accused of serial killing 'made chilling prediction of death at 5.15' ". The Times. p.3. Although acquitted, McTavish's case often is mentioned in lectures at medical colleges in Britain and is cited in textbooks and academic papers about forensic science and medical malpractice. [21] [22] [23] Colin Norris, a nurse convicted of four murders and an attempted murder in 2008, is said to have been inspired by McTavish's case. [2] [4] He murdered his patients using insulin. [2] Norris, a fellow Scottish nurse, grew up only a mile away from Ruchill where McTavish worked. [17] Her case was discussed extensively in lectures at Dundee University when Norris studied there. [17] See also [ edit ] Hospital Serial Killer: A Jury in the Dark". Inside Time. London. October 2011 . Retrieved 16 July 2013. Norris, recorded as being of Egilsay Terrace, Glasgow, [46] went to trial in 2007 at Newcastle Crown Court. Norris's father did not object to the decision to charge his son, whom he described as "scum". [47] At trial Norris denied ever having predicted Hall's death, despite having admitted this in police interviews. [43] He admitted giving Vera Wilby and Doris Ludlam overdoses of morphine on 17 May and 25 June 2002 respectively (police had found these injections recorded by him in the hospital records). [33] He had given Ludlam twice the allowed dose of morphine. [48] It was highlighted that, when police first interviewed him, Norris had not mentioned the cases of Ludlam, Bourke and Crookes when he was asked if he had ever had experience of patients falling into hypoglycaemic comas, even though that is what they had experienced when Norris was on duty. [49] Police said they believed this was done on purpose so he didn't arouse suspicion about those cases at that stage, since they had not yet been uncovered by investigators. [49] It was also brought to the jury's attention that documents had been found at Norris's home detailing a less painful way of injecting morphine. [50] Norris claimed, despite the blood test evidence, that none of the patients had been injected and if they were then an 'intruder' must have done it (since records showed no other staff member could have been responsible). [49] This is despite the fact that the insulin fridge, where the drug had apparently been taken from, had a coded access and only medical staff could access it. [44]

Part of me feels a lot of the evidence is circumstantial thus far - although, that being said, there’s still a lot to come. There are some parts of this case which I feel are being treated a lot more lightly than they should be. The fact that a senior consultant signed off a cause of death to be NEC even though she felt this wasn’t consistent with the deterioration of the baby, since NEC typically presents with slower deterioration (the baby deteriorated very suddenly in this case) coupled with the fact that nothing on the X-Ray suggested NEC - it begs the question, why in the world did the consultant sign off on this? This just isn’t good enough. This is the death of an infant. When you are a senior consultant, if you are unsure about anything at all you should be whistle-blowing and asking questions. Certainly not signing off on causes of death that you feel aren’t consistent with the events that have unfolded. I personally feel this warrants a sanction of some kind for the consultant. I feel this way also about the Dr who is said to have suspected Letby to have dislodged the baby’s tubes - if he felt that the neonate would not have moved around enough to cause dislodgement themselves, that there was reasonable suspicion that Letby purposefully did this, why in the world was this neither reported nor recorded in any notes? Also - the fact that the monitor seemed off and alarm seems disconnected - why were no red flags raised here??? It blows my mind. Where is the duty of care to these babies and their parents from these so called professionals? It begs the question - what kind of work culture was there in this hospital where occurrences like this are treated in such manners by senior professional medical personnel? It’s just not good enough. When you enter this profession, you must understand that you have a duty of care to the public and to the patients that are trusting you with their own & their families care. If you have any suspicions about any going’s on, these should be reported immediately. It looks lazy, grossly incompetent and wildly irresponsible. I know it’s hard to blame a colleague for such nefarious things, but come on. You have a DUTY OF CARE. Multiple doctors testified that McTavish often gave patients injections without recording these events in the patients' case notes. [3] At the trial it was revealed that police had recorded her testifying to them: "I gave a half cc of insulin soluble to Mrs Lyon because she wanted to be put out of her pain and misery". [11] When asked at trial if she indeed said this McTavish responded "I do not remember". [11] She had previously testified that she did not believe in euthanasia. [11] A daughter of one of the alleged victims said that McTavish had told her "it won't be long now" after giving her mother an injection. [12] The prosecution said that McTavish had been inspired by an episode of the detective series A Man Called Ironside, in which a character said that insulin was untraceable as a murder weapon and proceeded to murder a person using this method. [2] [17] McTavish had notably discussed with colleagues how the programme had taught her that soluble insulin would be an untraceable agent for homicide. [3] According to one nurse witness from the ward, McTavish had told her that she had watched Ironside and heard from it that they could not trace insulin in a body, and "they could dig up the bodies if they liked and they would not find any trace of insulin". [8] Aftermath [ edit ]You are, I have absolutely no doubt, a thoroughly evil and dangerous man. You are an arrogant and manipulative man with a real dislike of elderly patients. The most telling evidence was that observation of one of your patients, Bridget Tarpey, who said 'he did not like us old women'. My view is you did not like them because they required too much nursing and were too demanding of your time. You are in my judgment essentially lazy as evidenced by your absences from student placements and work." [29]

a b c d McCall, Amanda. "Memories of Ruchill Hospital as demolition team moves in". STV News . Retrieved 11 September 2014. Colin Norris case: Murder convictions 'unsafe' ". The BBC. London. 4 October 2011 . Retrieved 19 October 2011.

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