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Benjamin Geen is a British repeat
murderer Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse committed with the necessary intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisdiction. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse ...
and former
nurse Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alle ...
who was convicted of killing two of his own patients and committing
grievous bodily harm Assault occasioning grievous bodily harm (often abbreviated to GBH) is a term used in English criminal law to describe the severest forms of battery. It refers to two offences that are created by sections 18 and 20 of the Offences against the ...
against 15 others while working at
Horton General Hospital The Horton General Hospital is a National Health Service hospital located on the Oxford Road, in the Calthorpe ward of Banbury. It is managed by Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. History Pre-1948 The earliest part of the hospit ...
in
Banbury Banbury is an historic market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. The parish had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census. Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding ...
,
Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...
in 2003 and 2004. Geen, who was believed to be motivated by his 'thrill-seeking' temperament, injected a number of patients with dangerous drugs in order to cause respiratory arrest so he could enjoy the 'thrill' of resuscitating them. He was apprehended after staff at the hospital noticed that it was always when he treated patients, most of whom only had minor injuries such as
dislocated shoulder A dislocated shoulder is a condition in which the head of the humerus is detached from the glenoid fossa. Symptoms include shoulder pain and instability. Complications may include a Bankart lesion, Hill-Sachs lesion, rotator cuff tear, or Injur ...
s, that they inexplicably had respiratory failures. Upon his arrest, a syringe full of some of the drugs he used to attack patients was found on his person. When he saw officers approaching, he discharged the syringe contents into his jacket pocket in an attempt to hide the fact he had removed potentially lethal drugs from the hospital without authority. He was found guilty at trial in 2006 and sentenced to a minimum of 30 years imprisonment. All but one of the guilty verdicts against him were by unanimous jury decision. Geen has maintained his innocence but his multiple appeals have failed. In 2009 the
Court of Appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...
observed that the evidence against him was overwhelming and rejected claims that statistics could show his conviction to be unsafe, agreeing that "the danger of approaching this particular case on the basis of academic statistical opinion, however distinguished, is hat it isdivorced from the actual facts". Three applications for appeal to the Criminal Case Review Commission, the independent body which investigates alleged
miscarriages of justice A miscarriage of justice occurs when an unfair outcome occurs in a criminal or civil proceeding, such as the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit. Miscarriages are also known as wrongful convictions. Innocent p ...
, have also been rejected, most recently in 2020.


Background

Geen was known at
Horton General Hospital The Horton General Hospital is a National Health Service hospital located on the Oxford Road, in the Calthorpe ward of Banbury. It is managed by Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. History Pre-1948 The earliest part of the hospit ...
as a nurse who always looked for action. Colleagues noted that whenever patients unexpectedly fell ill Geen was around, leading to their nicknaming him 'Ben Allitt'. This was a reference to the infamous serial killer nurse Beverley Allitt, who in 1991 had injected a number of patients with lethal substances to seek attention. Geen was himself described as someone who wanted to be the centre of attention. He had joined the army reserve and was said to want to "walk towards the action and not away from it". Despite the fact that his post was in the minor injuries unit at the hospital, he would often leave his post without authority to work in the emergency department. He was a self-acknowledged "thrill-seeker", and enjoyed the
adrenaline Adrenaline, also known as epinephrine, is a hormone and medication which is involved in regulating visceral functions (e.g., respiration). It appears as a white microcrystalline granule. Adrenaline is normally produced by the adrenal glands a ...
rush of working in the casualty department on life or death cases. He said that there was a '
jinx A jinx (also jynx), in popular superstition and folklore, is a curse or the attribute of attracting bad or negative luck. Examples of "jinxing" in the 21st-century press include the suggestion a ship might be "jinxed". The connection was made wi ...
' on him and that things tended to go wrong when he was around. In the month in which his crimes began, Geen appeared in an edition of the '' Banbury Citizen''. Notably, this edition also featured an interview with actress
Rachel Leskovac Rachel Leskovac (born 5 June 1976) is an English actress and singer. She is known for portraying the roles of Kelly Yorke in the BBC One medical drama series ''Holby City'' (2003–2004), Natasha Blakeman in the ITV (TV network), ITV soap opera ...
, who played a serial killer nurse in the medical drama ''
Holby City ''Holby City'' (stylised on-screen as HOLBY CIY) is a British medical drama television series that aired weekly on BBC One. It was created by Tony McHale and Mal Young as a Spin-off (media), spin-off from the established BBC medical drama '' ...
''. This fictional character had murdered patients by secretly administering insulin and was eventually exposed as a murderer. Nurses at Horton Hospital later observed that there were notable similarities between this storyline and the crimes of Geen.


Previous warnings about behaviour

Geen was described as "gung-ho" for ignoring instructions. He had previously been warned by hospital managers for turning up at the emergency department without authority, and was instructed to stop drifting there from the minor injuries unit where he was posted. He had also been reprimanded for wearing nurse's epaulettes while he was unqualified to do so.


Crimes

Between December 2003 and February 2004, 18patients treated in the hospital's
accident and emergency department An emergency department (ED), also known as an accident and emergency department (A&E), emergency room (ER), emergency ward (EW) or casualty department, is a medical treatment facility specializing in emergency medicine, the acute care of pat ...
suffered
respiratory arrest Respiratory arrest is a serious medical condition caused by apnea or respiratory dysfunction severe enough that it will not sustain the body (such as agonal breathing). Prolonged apnea refers to a patient who has stopped breathing for a long period ...
s or depressions while Geen, a trainee nurse, was alone with each patient. These patients had all been admitted with only minor complaints such as dislocated shoulders and other mostly non-life-threatening conditions, yet suddenly found themselves fighting for their lives when they were treated by Geen. The respiratory arrests were unexplained since none of the patients' conditions should have caused a respiratory arrest to occur. Two of those patients had died in January 2004: Anthony Bateman (age 65) and David Onley (age 75). Onley had been admitted to the hospital due to heart problems and complications with his
diabetes Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...
. As part of standard procedure an
insulin Insulin (, from Latin ''insula'', 'island') is a peptide hormone produced by beta cells of the pancreatic islets encoded in humans by the insulin (''INS)'' gene. It is the main Anabolism, anabolic hormone of the body. It regulates the metabol ...
drip was given to Onley, and his condition improved. However, Geen then took over as day nurse and 35 minutes later the man suffered an unexplained respiratory arrest and struggled to breathe, causing him to die. Another man who suffered an unexplained respiratory arrest when treated by Geen, David Nelson, was found to have the drug
midazolam Midazolam, sold under the brand name Versed among others, is a benzodiazepine medication used for anesthesia, premedication before surgical anesthesia, and procedural sedation, and to treat psychomotor agitation, severe agitation. It induces ...
in his system, despite its not having been prescribed by any of the medical staff. When given incorrectly this drug can cause respiratory arrest. Another of Geen's patients who had been admitted due to stomach pains was found to have midazolam and the paralytic
vecuronium Vecuronium bromide, sold under the brand name Norcuron among others, is a medication used as part of general anesthesia to provide skeletal muscle relaxation during surgery or mechanical ventilation. It is also used to help with endotracheal ...
in his system, with no one having prescribed him these drugs. Vecuronium is a dangerous, protected drug which is used to paralyze patients during surgery. In hospitals, drugs have to be formally prescribed to patients by staff with the authority to do so, and verified by a pharmacist who checks to make sure that the prescribed drug and dosage is right for the patient before it is administered to them. This had not been done in the cases of these patients, and so the discovery of these potentially lethal drugs in their systems despite no staff member having prescribed them indicated that a renegade medic had intentionally poisoned the individuals. Notably, the latter patient was fine both before and after Geen treated him, having been well enough to drive himself to the hospital and making a full recovery after his respiratory arrest as soon as doctors put him on a life support machine. A fit 22-year-old had also fallen into respiratory arrest for no apparent reason when treated by Geen, as well as a woman who only attended the hospital due to a stomach complaint. Another patient who had been admitted after drinking a bottle of gin and painkillers stopped breathing after Geen gave him an anaesthetic he did not need. Another significant case was that of a 67-year-old woman who had been admitted to the minor injuries unit with only a
dislocated shoulder A dislocated shoulder is a condition in which the head of the humerus is detached from the glenoid fossa. Symptoms include shoulder pain and instability. Complications may include a Bankart lesion, Hill-Sachs lesion, rotator cuff tear, or Injur ...
. As soon as nurse Geen attended the patient and said he would flush out her
morphine Morphine, formerly also called morphia, is an opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin produced by drying the latex of opium poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as an analgesic (pain medication). There are ...
drip, she fell unconscious and into a respiratory arrest. Crucially, the woman was a former nurse herself, and was able to credibly describe in full what had happened and how Geen had been attending to her when she inexplicably fell ill. There was no reason for the woman to fall into respiratory arrest from having a dislocated shoulder. Geen was the first person on the scene and immediately knew what the issue was. Colleagues began to notice that it was always when Geen was on duty and attending patients that people were falling unexpectedly ill, and also noted that he always automatically knew why they were ill and what to do to remedy the situation. There had been concerns about his behaviour, particularly as he knew what to do to rectify problems even before a doctor had arrived to make a diagnosis. This indicated he knew what the problem was as he had caused it in the first place. Colleagues had nicknamed him "Ben Allitt" in reference to serial killer nurse Beverley Allitt; research shows that medical workers who are given such nicknames by others are often later found to have harmed patients. Several testified that Geen looked "elated" as his patients went into respiratory arrest and even "boasted" to a doctor: "There is always a resuscitation when I'm on duty."


Investigation

An internal investigation (before the two deaths had occurred) initially identified 25 patients who had experienced sudden respiratory arrest or failure under Geen's care, but nine were discounted before administrators alerted the police. The
Thames Valley Police Thames Valley Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the Thames Valley region, covering the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire in South East England. It is the largest non-metropolitan police force ...
conducted an investigation involving up to 40 officers and independent medical experts who advised the force. Tests discovered that a number of the patients who had suffered respiratory arrests had been inexplicably given the drug midazolam. It was discovered that Geen had injected patients with such unauthorised, lethal doses of drugs and this is what caused them to stop breathing. Medical experts agreed with the conclusions the police had drawn, and agreed that these drugs would cause the same symptoms of respiratory arrest that patients had suffered when treated by Geen.


Arrest and syringe discovery

Geen was arrested as he arrived at the hospital to work on 9 February 2004. He had on his person a syringe with the potentially lethal paralytic
vecuronium Vecuronium bromide, sold under the brand name Norcuron among others, is a medication used as part of general anesthesia to provide skeletal muscle relaxation during surgery or mechanical ventilation. It is also used to help with endotracheal ...
inside, despite it being strictly forbidden for nurses to take syringes or such drugs out of the hospital. The same paralyzing agent had been given to David Olney, one of the patients who had unexpectedly died on Geen's watch, and to other patients who had gone into respiratory arrest while treated by Geen. As he saw the officers approaching, Geen discharged the contents of the syringe into the pocket of his jacket in an attempt to hide the fact he was taking this drug and syringe into the hospital that morning. He refused to tell the officers what the drug was when they apprehended him, further raising suspicion. Geen claimed that he had accidentally taken the syringe home in a pocket of his scrubs after a chaotic day. The syringe needle was found to be heavily worn showing it had been used a number of times. In hospitals syringes (and needles) are single use. The jacket was tested and was found to not only contain vecuronium but also traces of midazolam, the drug known to have been illegally administered to some of Geen's patients and which had caused them to go into respiratory arrest. Geen was formally accused of two murders and of inflicting
grievous bodily harm Assault occasioning grievous bodily harm (often abbreviated to GBH) is a term used in English criminal law to describe the severest forms of battery. It refers to two offences that are created by sections 18 and 20 of the Offences against the ...
with intent upon 16 patients.


Trial

During his trial, Oxford Crown Court was told that Geen purposely used
insulin Insulin (, from Latin ''insula'', 'island') is a peptide hormone produced by beta cells of the pancreatic islets encoded in humans by the insulin (''INS)'' gene. It is the main Anabolism, anabolic hormone of the body. It regulates the metabol ...
,
sedative A sedative or tranquilliser is a substance that induces sedation by reducing irritability or Psychomotor agitation, excitement. They are central nervous system (CNS) Depressant, depressants and interact with brain activity, causing its decelera ...
s, and muscle relaxants to trigger respiratory arrest or failure in patients because he enjoyed the 'thrill' of resuscitating them. Both the prosecution and defence accepted that he was often around when things unexpectedly went wrong in the hospital. One nurse testified how Geen appeared "elated" when one of the victims went into respiratory arrest, and said "oh no, here we go again" as the patient began to fight for breath despite being in a good condition minutes earlier. Another testified how she had been treating the patient earlier in the morning when he was in a good condition, but then discovered he had died shortly after she had handed over responsibility of his care to Geen. On 18 April 2006, a jury found Geen guilty of the two murder charges and of intentionally inflicting grievous bodily harm on 15 patients. On 9 May 2006 Geen, then 25 years old, was given 17
life sentence Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life imprisonment are c ...
s with the recommendation that he spend at least 30 years in prison before being considered for
parole Parole, also known as provisional release, supervised release, or being on paper, is a form of early release of a prisoner, prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated ...
. In court, Geen maintained his innocence and vowed to appeal his conviction. All but one of the guilty verdicts were unanimous.
Criminologist Criminology (from Latin , 'accusation', and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'', 'word, reason') is the interdisciplinary study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is a multidisciplinary field in both the behaviou ...
and detective Dr. Graham Hill concluded that Geen had hero syndrome. This is when individuals want to be seen as a hero, sometimes causing them to create devastating situations so that they can then be seen to 'save the day'.


Subsequent events


Fate of victims

A patient who fell into a coma for six days after being treated by Geen, John Thorburn, later died in 2009. His son Richard would state to ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' in December 2014 that his father had never fully recovered from Geen's attack and this led to his subsequent death.


Failed appeals

Geen's case was reviewed by lawyers and volunteers from the London Innocence Project. Geen's barrister, Michael Powers, has stated that "there was a major
miscarriage of justice A miscarriage of justice occurs when an unfair outcome occurs in a criminal or civil proceeding, such as the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit. Miscarriages are also known as wrongful convictions. Innocent ...
." Mark McDonald, founder and chair of the London Innocence Project, has said that he believes the case against Geen was manufactured. Geen's family believes he is the victim of a "
witch-hunt A witch hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. Practicing evil spells or Incantation, incantations was proscribed and punishable in early human civilizations in the ...
" by officials seeking to avoid the mistakes made in the case of Dr.
Harold Shipman Harold Frederick Shipman (14 January 1946 – 13 January 2004), known to acquaintances as Fred Shipman, was an English doctor in general practice and serial killer. He is considered to be one of the most prolific serial killers in modern ...
. A first appeal failed in November 2009, when the
Court of Appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...
rejected his defence. The court observed that the evidence against him was overwhelming and concluded that any attempt to use statistical evidence to demonstrate Geen's innocence was flawed, declaring: Richard Thorburn, son of Geen victim John Thorburn, publicly insisted in 2014 that Geen had been rightfully convicted. Geen's subsequent applications for appeal to the
Criminal Cases Review Commission The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is the statutory body responsible for investigating alleged miscarriages of justice in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It was established by Section 8 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 and be ...
, the public body that investigates alleged miscarriages of justice, have all been rejected. For his first application his defence team again recruited mathematical experts who stated that a statistical cluster of respiratory arrests was not unusual, but the miscarriage of justice watchdog was likewise unconvinced and rejected his application. Applications to the CCRC were rejected in both 2013 and 2015. The CCRC noted that, besides the statistics, there was other compelling evidence indicating Geen's guilt, such as the syringe full of drugs found in his pocket which he had tried to hide and the fact that all of the patients had rapidly declined while under his personal care. Statistics only made up a minor part of the evidence against Geen, his conviction being mainly based on the direct evidence against him that the CCRC had taken note of when turning down the application, such as the murder weapon found in his pocket full of the drugs used in the attacks. The commission was then forced to reconsider its 2015 decision in the wake of a legal challenge, but in July 2020 the CCRC again announced that they saw no reason to refer Geen's case to the Court of Appeal and rejected his application. In total his appeals have been denied on four occasions. In a 2017 episode of the
CBS Reality CBS Reality is a European pay television channel specializing in reality-based programming, including true crime documentaries and factual entertainment. It is operated by AMC Networks International in partnership with Paramount Networks EME ...
programme ''The Jury Room'', in which 12 members of the public were asked to act as a 'jury' and review the evidence against Geen, the 'jury' unanimously concluded that Geen was guilty and not a victim of a miscarriage of justice. High-profile detective Colin Sutton, best known for leading the Metropolitan Police investigations into Levi Bellfield and Delroy Grant, has also publicly stated that Geen is likely guilty, highlighting that his defence team's argument that statistical clusters of respiratory arrests are not uncommon does not explain why all the arrests happened while nurse Geen was on duty tending to the patients. He has also pointed to the fact that there was a large amount of other evidence against him which the statistics could not account for.


New evidence

In 2023 lawyers acting for Geen said there was new evidence that undermined the safety of his convictions. An analysis of data, relating to patients in the United States, who had similar characteristics, indicated that the patients went into respiratory arrest on his ward was "nothing out of the ordinary". Michael Freeman, a consultant and professor in
forensic medicine Forensic medicine is a broad term used to describe a group of medical specialties which deal with the examination and diagnosis of individuals who have been injured by or who have died because of external or unnatural causes such as poisoning, assa ...
and
epidemiology Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and Risk factor (epidemiology), determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population, and application of this knowledge to prevent dise ...
said "There is incontrovertible and highly reliable epidemiological evidence that multiple patients with respiratory arrest would have been expected amongst Mr Geen's charges during the 42-day period at issue". Mark McDonald, a barrister representing Geen, said he would present the new statistical evidence to the CCRC and expectated that they would refer the case to the Court of Appeal.


In popular culture

Geen's case has been the subject of multiple television programmes: *A series 1 episode of the series ''Nurses Who Kill'' aired in 2016 which focused on Geen's crimes. *An episode of the
CBS Reality CBS Reality is a European pay television channel specializing in reality-based programming, including true crime documentaries and factual entertainment. It is operated by AMC Networks International in partnership with Paramount Networks EME ...
programme ''The Jury Room'' focused on Geen's case in 2017. Twelve members of the public were asked to act as a 'jury' and review the evidence against Geen. The 'jury' unanimously concluded that Geen was guilty. *A series 4 episode of Crime+ Investigation's ''Killer Britain with
Dermot Murnaghan Dermot John Murnaghan (; born 26 December 1957) is a British media personality, notable as a journalist, news reporter and television host. He has been a presenter for numerous networks including at Channel 4, a news presenter at CNBC Europe, I ...
'' documented Geen's crimes. It aired on 4 April 2022.


See also

*
John Bodkin Adams John Bodkin Adams (21 January 18994 July 1983) was a British general practitioner, convicted fraudster, and suspected serial killer. Between 1946 and 1956, 163 of his patients died while in comas, which was deemed to be worthy of investigation ...
– British doctor who was controversially acquitted of the murder of a patient in 1957, but who is now suspected to have murdered 163 of his patients over 10 years *
2011 Stepping Hill Hospital poisoning incident In 2011, deaths occurred at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. After suspicions were raised concerning the similarities of the deaths, a murder inquiry was launched. Nurse Victorino Chua was found to have poisoned s ...
– in which a nurse poisoned several patients with insulin in a hospital in Manchester * David Moor – British doctor who was acquitted in 1999 of a murder but who subsequently admitted to 'helping' 300 patients to die *
Colin Norris Colin Campbell Norris (born 12 February 1976) is a British serial killer who was convicted of the murder of four elderly patients and the attempted murders of two others in two hospitals in Leeds, England, in 2002. A police investigation showed ...
– Scottish nurse convicted in 2002 for the murder of four elderly patients and attempted murder of another in two hospitals in Leeds *
Niels Högel Niels Högel (born 30 December 1976) is a German serial killer and former nurse who was sentenced to life imprisonment, initially for the murders of six patients, and later convicted of a total of eighty-five murders. Estimates of Högel's alle ...
– German nurse sentenced to life imprisonment, initially for the murders of six patients, and later convicted of a total of 85 murders *
Lucy Letby Lucy Letby (born 4 January 1990) is a British former neonatal nurse who was convicted of the murders of seven infants and the attempted murders of seven others between June 2015 and June 2016. Letby came under investigation following a high ...
– British serial killer nurse who murdered at least seven babies and attacked a further six


References


Notes


External links


2016 ''Nurses Who Kill'' documentary on Geen2022 ''Killer Britain with Dermot Murnaghan'' documentary on Geen's crimesIndependent review (2006) into Horton General A&E following the conviction of Ben Geen
{{DEFAULTSORT:Geen, Benjamin Living people Nurses convicted of murdering patients English people convicted of murder Place of birth missing (living people) Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by England and Wales English murderers People convicted of murder by England and Wales English prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Male nurses 1980 births