Nurse dubbed ‘Angel of Death’ could be CLEARED of murder as expert compares case to Lucy Letby

They became ill when Norris was on shift and eventually died.

However, Norris could be freed in May when his case will be heard at the Court of Appeal in London, which will consider if the evidence brought against him is largely circumstantial and deeply flawed, reports the Daily Record.

His case has gained notable attention due to the parallels it draws with that of nurse Lucy Letby, who is serving 15 whole life sentences for the murder of seven babies and the attempted murder of seven others between 2015 and 2016.

Letby lost two appeals against her conviction in July last year, but earlier this month a panel of experts went public to question the evidence held against her.

Professor Alan Wayne Jones, a retired expert in forensic toxicology, said there were “close parallels between the two cases”.

He said: “It is absolutely possible Colin Norris and Lucy Letby could be cleared of these crimes on appeal, given the weight of evidence that might be gathered to undermine the methodology applied in the trials.”

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Doubt over Norris’ conviction was initially raised in a 2014 episode of BBC Panorama.

Professor Vincent Marks, who has since died, uncovered the only solid evidence against Norris was insulin in the system of just one of the elderly women, Ethel Hall.

Professor Jones says in the case of the other deceased pensioners, there was no chemical or forensic evidence that led them to Norris’ door.

“He happened to be on duty when these elderly ladies died,” Prof. Jones told the Daily Record, “and when they died, they were diagnosed to have hypoglycemia and because Norris was already suspected in the Ethel Hall case they searched the hospital rota and found that he was on duty when his other elder ladies died and they had hypoglycemia.”

The retired forensic expert concludes the investigation against Norris “put two and two together and accused Norris of killing the other ladies as well” and says there is mounting evidence that the nurse got “a raw deal”, unaided by the nurse’s known dislike of elderly patients.

Even with the evidence of insulin in the toxicology report of Ethel Hall, the test was done using a method called immunoassays, which Professor Jones says is insufficient at meeting the high standards set for reliable forensic evidence: “We consider positive immunoassay results presumptive positive.”

Putting the death of Ethel Hall to one side, the Court of Appeal will review Norris’ case by considering evidence of the other deaths: Doris Ludlam, 80; Bridget Bourke, 88; and Irene Crookes, 79.

They will also review evidence from Vera Wilby, 90, who survived the reported murder attempt.

At the time of his sentencing at Newcastle Crown Court, Justice Griffith Williams told Norris: “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.

“Only you know why that dislike was so much that you decided to kill. Despite months of evidence, I am no wiser as to your motive.”

Norris’ attempted appeal in 2009 was thrown out, but in 2021 the Criminal Cases Review Commission concluded there was a “real possibility the Court of Appeal will decide Mr Norris’s conviction for the murder/attempted murder of one or more of the four patients is unsafe”.

Colin Norris will appear before the Court of Appeal in London in May, more than halfway through his 30-year sentence