A male nurse dubbed the 'Angel of Death' has today lost a last-ditch bid to overturn his convictions for the murder of four elderly women and the attempted murder of a fifth - in a chilling case that bears haunting similarities to baby killer Lucy Letby.
Colin Campbell, formerly known as Colin Norris, was jailed for life in 2008 after a jury found him guilty of murdering Doris Ludlam, Bridget Bourke, Irene Crookes and Ethel Hall - all patients on orthopaedic wards in Leeds in 2002.
The former nurse was also convicted of attempting to kill another patient. All of his victims developed sudden, unexplained hypoglycaemia - dangerously low blood sugar - which prosecutors at the time argued could only have been induced.
Campbell, now in his late 40s, has always maintained his innocence and denied any wrongdoing. He has repeatedly insisted he did nothing to cause hypoglycaemia in any of the patients.
But after a 14-day hearing earlier this year, the Court of Appeal dismissed his latest legal challenge - ruling that his five convictions were safe.
In a judgment handed down on Thursday, Lady Justice Macur, Mr Justice Picken and Sir Stephen Irwin said: 'We have no doubt about the safety of any of the five convictions. The appeals are dismissed.'
Letby, 34, is currently serving 15 whole-life orders for murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven more - including trying to kill one baby twice - during a year-long reign of terror between 2015 and 2016.
Colin Campbell, formerly known as Colin Norris, was jailed for life in 2008 after a jury found him guilty of murdering Doris Ludlam, Bridget Bourke, Irene Crookes and Ethel Hall.
All of his victims, including Bridget Bourke (left) and Doris Ludlam (right), developed sudden, unexplained hypoglycaemia - dangerously low blood sugar.
Campbell's case had been referred back to the courts by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) in 2021, which pointed out that the original prosecution was based on 'wholly circumstantial' evidence and 'heavily reliant on expert opinion.'
His legal team, led by renowned barrister Michael Mansfield KC, argued that new medical understanding could mean the patients' conditions might have occurred naturally.
Mr Mansfield told the court: 'The approach of the witnesses we intend to call on behalf of the appellant indicates an evolution of understanding, of knowledge, about hypoglycaemia and about glucose generally. So, we say there is now a range of possibilities relating to natural causes.'
But prosecutors pushed back, pointing out that much of the new material presented was already considered by the original jury.
Campbell's trial in 2008 heard that spontaneous hypoglycaemia was extremely rare - and that it was 'extraordinary' for a cluster of such cases to occur on the same ward in a short time frame.
Crucially, jurors were told that Campbell had been present when each patient fell ill or shortly before - making him the only common factor.
The argument bears eerie parallels to Letby's trial, where the neonatal nurse was said to be the 'common denominator' when multiple babies collapsed or died at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
Glasgow-born Norris was jailed for life in March 2008, when he was 32.
After a 14-day hearing earlier this year, the Court of Appeal dismissed Norris' latest legal challenge - ruling that his five convictions were safe.
Letby, 34, is currently serving 15 whole-life orders for murdering seven infants and attempting to murder seven more - including trying to kill one baby twice - during a year-long reign of terror between 2015 and 2016.
The Letby case has been picked up by the same CCRC in recent months and is now under review, with campaigners and some medical experts claiming there may have been a miscarriage of justice.
A 'blue riband committee' of 14 senior neonatologists recently claimed they found 'no murders' after reviewing Letby's case.
Today's ruling in Campbell's case may be viewed as a sobering reality check for Letby's supporters.
Though his legal battle has spanned more than a decade - including an initial appeal in 2009 and a review application to the CCRC in 2011 - the courts have now emphatically dismissed the challenge.
It took ten years for the CCRC to refer the case back to the Court of Appeal - by which time Campbell had already spent 13 years behind bars.
The panel did consider new expert views suggesting the hypoglycaemia in all but one of the four victims might have had natural causes - but judges concluded this was not enough to overturn the jury's original conclusions.
Letby's lawyers referred her case to the CCRC in February this year. Any decision to quash her convictions will ultimately lie with the Court of Appeal.
Letby became only the fourth woman in British history to be handed a whole-life tariff - joining notorious killers Rose West, Joanna Dennehy and Myra Hindley - when she was sentenced last August after a nine-month trial.
She was originally convicted of seven murders and later found guilty of an additional attempted murder following a retrial.