9 killer medical professionals from the UK
Murder By MedicOver the years, we’ve seen several grim cases of carers that kill. In the UK alone, there’s a vast history of medical professionals who have exploited their position of trust to maltreat patients they were meant to be looking after.
Crime+Investigation’s series, Murder By Medic, explores these chilling stories, exposing how healers turned into murderers behind closed doors. From Harold Shipman to Colin Howell, this article explores some of Britain’s most notorious cases where the line between medicine and murder was fatally crossed.
1. Harold Shipman
One of the worst examples of medical murderers in the UK has to be GP Harold Shipman. Labelled 'Doctor Death' by the UK press, Shipman was thought to have killed over 100 patients in the Greater Manchester area.
Mainly targeting elderly people, his method was to inject trusting victims with a deadly dose of drugs, claiming they died of natural causes. This process meant he was able to evade suspicion throughout most of the 1990s.
Shipman’s actions started to garner attention after an 81-year-old woman he was caring for was found dead in her home only a few hours after his visit.
One of the UK’s most infamous serial killers, Harold Shipman was finally convicted in 2000 of 15 counts of murder.
2. Beverley Allitt
A heinous tale of medical murder that will shock anyone is that of Beverly Allitt. She was given 13 life sentences, one for each of the children she murdered, or attempted to murder, back in the 1990s.
Between February and April 1991, 13 children had been admitted to Grantham and Kesteven Hospital in Lincolnshire for minor injuries. That includes Allitt’s youngest victim, Liam Taylor, who was just seven weeks old at the time of his death. It was discovered that Allitt had been injecting her patients with a dangerous dose of insulin.
Staff started to become suspicious of the ex-nurse after her fourth victim died of another cardiac arrest, 15-month-old Claire Peck. There had been several suspicious cardiac arrests on the children’s ward Allitt was working on, so the police began an investigation.
It was later uncovered that Allitt was the only member of staff on duty at the time of the children’s murders. She was found guilty of four counts of murder, three of attempted murder, and six counts of GBH in 1993.
3. Malcolm Webster
When it comes to unbelievable crimes, the case of Malcolm Webster is always a top contender. Working as a nurse, he murdered his first wife Claire in a fake fireball crash in 1994.
Described as 'The Black Widow', Webster murdered Claire by staging a car crash in Aberdeenshire – whereby he drove the car off the road and started a fire while she lay unconscious. Webster claimed more than £200,000 from insurance policies, claiming her death was a tragic accident.
But sadly, the web of lies didn’t end there. Webster’s next stop was New Zealand. In 1999, he was also convicted of deliberately causing a deadly car crash involving his second wife Felicity Drumm and her unborn child. Luckily, Felicity survived the attack.
After a long and complicated trial, Webster was convicted of crimes that spanned 11 pages on the formal accusation.
4. Marie Whiston
Abusing her medical skills to kill rather than care, Marie Whiston was sentenced to life in 1997 for murdering her then-partner Eric Lloyd to start a new life in Canada with her lover.
Months prior to Eric’s death in 1994, it was reported that the victim had changed his will, leaving his whole estate to his common-law wife Whiston.
An autopsy later revealed that Whiston had been injecting Eric between the toes with lethal doses of insulin, which would later result in his death.
The ex-nurse was handed a life sentence by Birmingham Crown Court in 1997, with a 16-year minimum term.
5. Mitesh Patel
Yorkshire pharmacist Mitesh Patel killed his wife and stole her eggs, all to claim her life insurance and run away with his lover. A true case of believing the unbelievable, Patel was convicted of strangling his wife Jessica in a bid to steal her embryos and escape to Australia.
Staging a break-in at their Middlesborough home, Patel subdued Jessica with an insulin injection before placing a plastic bag over her head. He advised authorities he wasn’t at home at the time she was killed.
The ex-pharmacist was sentenced to life in prison for his evil crimes, serving a minimum sentence of at least 30 years.
6. Alison Firth
When 84-year-old Alice Grant died at the Gateshead care home she was a resident at, it was sad but not unexpected. She’d suffered from two strokes, could no longer talk and required round-the-clock care. Her relatives believed she was in the best possible place to receive palliative care.
What they didn’t expect was for her death to become a murder case. However, it emerged that she had been given a massive drug overdose by Alison Firth, who worked as a member of staff at the care home. Firth was the only nurse on duty at the time.
Described as a 'lazy' nurse who had changed nursing posts 27 times in 16 years, Firth injected Alice with the sedative Heminievrin. She then sprayed the room with air freshener to mask the drug’s smell. Her chilling motive? She simply couldn’t be bothered to keep her victim alive.
During her trial at Newcastle Crown Court, a cleaner gave evidence of seeing Firth feeding Alice the drug through a syringe. She was later overheard telling another member of staff, 'I wish Alice would hurry up and die. It would give me something to do.'
Jailing her for life, the judge summarised Firth’s actions: 'You murdered Mrs Grant largely because you didn’t want to be put to the trouble of caring for her in the future.'
7. Colin Howell
After the bodies of Lesley Howell and Trevor Buchanan were found in a car full of exhaust fumes in May 1991, it looked like a tragic suicide pact. Both had lost their spouses to an affair – so the narrative fit. But the truth was far darker.
Colin Howell, a devout Christian and highly respected dentist from Northern Ireland, had meticulously and deviously staged their deaths.
Motivated by greed and lust, Howell gassed his wife as she slept on the sofa at their home before driving her body to his lover’s home. After checking that her husband was sleeping, Hazel Stewart allowed Howell to gas Trevor in their bedroom.
Following the murder of his wife, Howell received a payout of £400,000, but later lost most of this in a get-rich-quick scheme.
For years, Howell kept his grisly crime a secret. However, in 2009, he confessed to elders in his church, who urged him to inform police. After pleading guilty to the double murder, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Hazel, Howell’s former lover and accomplice, was also found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 18 years.
8. Anne Grigg-Booth
To colleagues and patients at the Airedale General Hospital in West Yorkshire, Anne Grigg-Booth was a trusted, compassionate nurse. But in 2005, an investigation cast a shadow over her reputation – and her entire career.
Grigg-Booth was accused of killing three patients with lethal doses of painkillers, and attempting to harm 12 others. Prosecutors alleged that she administered powerful drugs like morphine and diazepam without proper authorisation, breaching strict hospital protocols. Her alleged victims were vulnerable and elderly – patients who should have been safe in her care.
The case made national headlines, raising fears about unchecked medical authority and systemic failings. But before the full truth could be tested in court, Grigg-Booth died from a suspected overdose of antidepressants in August 2005, after being charged with multiple offences in September 2004.
An inquest later heard that she had been regarded as a 'blunderer, not a killer', and no criminal trial ever took place. The legacy is a troubling, unresolved chapter in the history of Britain’s healthcare system – one that blurs the line between tragic incompetence and suspected criminality.
9. Victorino Chua
In the summer of 2011, Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport became the scene of a chilling medical mystery. Patients were experiencing unexpected hypoglycaemic episodes without any clear cause. The common thread? All had received saline drips.
The culprit was Victorino Chua, a nurse who had been secretly injecting insulin into saline bags and ampoules, which were then unknowingly administered by his colleagues. This method of poisoning led to the deaths of Tracey Arden (44) and Derek Weaver (83) and caused harm to numerous others.
During his trial, Chua’s actions were described as 'indescribably wicked', highlighting the sinister nature of contaminating treatments intended to heal.
In 2015, Chua was convicted of two counts of murder and multiple counts of grievous bodily harm and poisoning. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 35 years. An appeal against his conviction and sentence was rejected in 2016.
Want to hear more about the hottest true crime cases? Subscribe to the Crime+Investigation newsletter today. Every week, you’ll receive new articles, content and updates from Crime+Investigation shows direct to your inbox. From infamous serial killers to baffling cold cases, there’s something for you.
