Barbara Salisbury

Salisbury, who lived in Pontybodkin in north Wales, worked as a nurse in Leighton Hospital in Crewe.[5][3][2] In 1998 she assumed overall control of her ward after the previous senior nurse moved elsewhere.[2] Salisbury's attitude was disliked by a number of members of staff, who felt she was offensive to them.[6] She made others aware that she found the elderly patients taking up beds on the ward annoying.[7]

Salisbury was tried in 2004 at Chester Crown Court for the attempted murder of four patients under her care between 1999 and 2002.[5] In 2002 the hospital she was working at had been in a 'bedblocking crisis', with a large number of the few beds being used long-term by elderly patients, causing there to be few spaces available for other patients.[6] In March 2002, Salisbury arrived back at work after a period off sick to find 92-year-old patient Frank Owen was still at the hospital, whom she disliked.[6] She was heard to remark to a member of staff "what's he still doing here?".[6] Even though the man needed to be in hospital to be on a drip, she repeatedly tried to get him discharged, and when this failed she told staff to "lie him on his back so his lungs will fill with fluid and he will die".[6] Then she gave him two unnecessary doses of morphine, despite fellow staff protesting that he was not in pain, and he subsequently died only five minutes after she went off shift.[6] When later asked if he died in peace she responded "yes, thanks to me".[6] Her colleagues would later testify that her behaviour was "callous and unprofessional".[6]

Salisbury similarly attempted to murder 88-year-old May Taylor by giving her overdoses of morphine by lying to doctors.[6] Other staff who challenged her were told by Salisbury "why prolong the inevitable?", demonstrating that she had intentionally killed her.[6] Justifying her rogue dosages of morphine, she recorded in notes that patients were in pain, despite every other nurse saying otherwise.[8] A man who was in the hospital after suffering a minor stroke, 76-year-old James Byrne, was also unnecessarily given morphine by Salisbury and told by her "it's OK to go now".[6]

Salisbury began to experience clinical depression and was treated for this at the hospital between August 2002 and July 2003.[6]

After the complaints of a number of colleagues, who each came forward independently,[9] Cheshire Police investigated for a year and an inquiry scrutinised the deaths of twenty elderly patients at the hospital in the preceding five years.[6] Investigators charged Salisbury with the four attempted murders in June 2003.[6] All four of the patients had been (and died) under her individual care.[6][4] At trial the staff members testified about her behaviour to court.[2] Salisbury denied all the charges and claimed she could not remember any of the patients, denying even that she had carried out euthanasia on the elderly patients.[4][5] It was heard that, with Salisbury having told patients it was "time to go" during a time when there was a bedblocking crisis on the ward, she was evidently trying to free up beds in the hospital.[4] The records proved she had given patients excessive doses of morphine, such as with patient James Byrne who should have been given the 8 ml solution gradually over a twenty-four-hour period, but it was actually infused into his blood in less than sixteen hours.[4] Experts testified that to speed up the administration of morphine to this extent, she would have had to have pressed the patient's morphine administration button (as witnesses had often seen her doing) an excessive 76 times.[4] The button was meant to only be pressed two or three times every now and again.[10] It was also heard that Salisbury remarked "with any luck his lungs will fill with fluid and he will die" when she ordered one patient to be placed on his back.[4] Salisbury herself admitted saying "It's OK to go now" to patients, explaining it to mean "It's OK, you can leave this life".[6]

Salisbury was unanimously[11] found guilty of the attempted murders of May Taylor and Frank Owen by the jury and sentenced to five years' imprisonment.[5] She was cleared of having unlawfully contributed to the deaths of 76-year-old James Bryan and 81-year-old Rueben Thompson.[5] Harold Owen, son of victim Frank Owen, said that Salisbury was "cold and hard" and commented: "Frank, my father, was a hard-working man and he deserved to be treated with dignity at the end of his life."[9] Taylor's granddaughter reacted by stating "The past two years have put my mum and our family through a lot of heartache, torment and stress and today Nan can finally rest in peace, knowing that justice has been done".[12] Cheshire Police praised the hospital staff for their "full collaboration" with the investigation.[9]

Salisbury's trial judge told her that she had 'broken her duty and abused her trust of care towards her patients and preservation of human life' and commented "You chose to exercise control over the life and death of patients whose time had not quite come".[5]

Salisbury's conviction received significant news coverage, with the media noting her "ruthless" desire to free up beds.[5][6][7][10][12]

A forensic expert noted that there had been a number of similar cases in the United States of nurses who had killed patients to free up beds, and said that it "does come up from time to time".[9] Her conviction led to speculation that she may have claimed other victims in her 29-year career and harmed further patients.[10]

In November 2005, Salisbury lost an appeal against her conviction.[13] At this point she was imprisoned at HM Prison Low Newton.[11] Families of the victims had expressed their anger at the campaign to free her and said that it was making it difficult for them to move on, with Taylor's daughter stating "It makes me angry. I wish it would go away. You try to get on but it's hard and seems to be dragging on".[11]

In June 2007, there was anger when it was revealed that Salisbury was still on the nursing register three years after her conviction, with her due to be released from prison in October that year.[14] It was revealed that Salisbury wanted to return to nursing.[14] She was later struck off the register on 24 October 2007, a week after her release from HM Prison Drake Hall having served three years and four months' imprisonment.[15] However, she was to be allowed to re-apply to nursing in five years' time.[15] An independent committee had investigated and decided she should be removed from the register.[15]

Salisbury's case has continued to attract notable coverage in the long-term. Her case has been featured in articles in a number of academic journals, such as The British Journal of Nursing and the Journal of Forensic Sciences.[1][16][17]

In 2018, Salisbury's case returned to the news when it was reported that she was trying to overturn her conviction.[18]

• Jessie McTavish
• Lucy Letby