Catherine Hudson: How many serial killer nurses have there been in the UK and who did they murder?

They are the ones we rely on to care for us when we need it the most.

The NHS is full of incredible, hardworking people who go above and beyond for their patients each and every day. However, there have been some nurses in years gone by who have inflicted harm instead of healing, leaving devestation and heartbreak in their wake.

From the jailing of Catherine Hudson earlier today (December 14) to infant murders in the early 1990s, here are some of the UK's serial killer nurses - who they killed and what happened when the law caught up with them.

Beverley Allitt

Beverley Allitt was a paediatric nurse working at Grantham and Kesteven Hospital in Lincolnshire, where she had lived her whole life. She went to school around the corner at Charles Read Academy and often earned money as a babysitter.

Between February and April 1991, medical staff became aware that there were a suspicious number of cardiac arrests taking place on the children's ward. It transpired that in a bid for attention, Allitt had injecting large doses of insulin into children - 13 children in total, with four dying as a result. She was found guilty in court of four counts of murder, five counts of attempted murder and six gound of grievous bodily harm.

Nicknamed "The Angel of Death," Allitt is currently serving 13 life sentences at Rampton Secure Hospital.

Colin Norris

Scottish nurse Colin Norris was very open about his dislike for elderly patients. Working in Leeds, his dislike boiled over into a murder spree that tore families apart.

Norris was the only person on duty when five patients in his care all fell into hypoglycaemic comas, and between May and November 2002 he murdered four people and attempted to murder a fifth. Detectives believed he was involved with a further six deaths but there was not enough evidence for a conviction.

It's thought he was inspired by Jessie MacTavish - another Scottish nurse who was convicted of murdering a patient with insulin in 1974. Her conviction was overturned the following year.

The Glaswegian was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum of 30 years.

Benjamin Geen

Also serving a life sentence, Benjamin Geen murdered two of his patients - but committed atrocities against more than a dozen others in his care.

Geen was working as a nurse at Horton General Hospital in Banbury, Oxfordshire, he was known as someone who was always looking for action. With his "thrill-seeking" he would inject patients with dangerous drugs, causing them to have a cardiac arrest so that he could resuscitate them.

For his crimes between December 2003 and February 2004, he was convicted of two counts of murder and 15 counts of grievous bodily harm. In the years afterwards it's thought there could be a total of 12 murder victims, and 24 GBH victims.

Victorino Chua

In 2011, a series of suspicious deaths occurred at Stepping Hill Hospital in Greater Manchester.

A murder inquiry was launched, with a total of seven fatalities reported. Greater Manchester Police found that these patients died after saline ampoules and saline drips had been contaminated with insulin. Victorino Chua, age 46, was arrested amid claims that medical forms had been altered. In 2014, he was charged with the murder of three patients - Tracey Arden, Arnold Lancaster and Alfred Weaver - and 31 other offences including GBH and poisoning.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 35 years, and so will be 84 years old when he becomes eligible for parole.

Lucy Letby

Lucy Letby has become the most prolific child serial killer of the modern age.

When NHS nurse Lucy Letby was first put in handcuffs back in 2018, it was the culmination of a two-year investigation by Cheshire Constabulary into multiple premature infant deaths and near-fatal collapses at Countess of Chester Hospital.

In June 2016, Letby was on the ward when two tripet boys died and another baby boy collapsed in three consecutive days. She was confined to clerical work and in September 2016 registered a grievance procedure, which the court heard was resolved in her favour in December.

In August 2023, Letby was found guilty of murdering six babies and attempting to murder a further seven. She was given a whole-life sentence.

Catherine Hudson

A nurse who drugged patients on a hospital stroke unit for an “easy life” and to “exercise contemptuous power” has been jailed for seven years and two months.

Catherine Hudson, 54, illegally sedated two patients at Blackpool Victoria Hospital and conspired with junior colleague Charlotte Wilmot, 48, to sedate a third.

Police were alerted by hospital chiefs in November 2018 after a student nurse on a work placement said Hudson suggested administering unprescribed zopiclone, a sleeping pill, to elderly patient Aileen Scott.