All language subtitles for Britains.Most.Evil.Killers.S01E12.WEBRip.en

-In April 1991, doctors at
Grantham and Kesteven Hospital

in Lincolnshire
were perplexed.

In just 2 months, the health
of 13 children on Ward 4

had mysteriously deteriorated.

Four of them had died.

-Sadly, I had to share
with the parents and said,

"Look, this is impossible,
but I can't do anything more."

I felt so sad.

He died in my hands.

-But this was
no unfortunate coincidence.

-I began to realize that
there was a serial killer

that was working on that ward

and was causing the collapses
of these children.

-Unbelievably,
one of the nurses

was deliberately attempting
to kill her young patients

by injecting them
with deadly poison.

-A sergeant walked in,
and then he said,

"We have reason to believe
that Paul's illness,

hypoglycemic attacks,

were a result of
a maladministration of drugs,"

and I remember my words exactly.

"That would explain a lot,
wouldn't it?"

-Beverley Allitt, the woman
dubbed the Angel of Death,

had, without doubt, become

one of the world's
most evil killers.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

It was a case
that shocked the world.

For 59 days in 1991,

there was a serial killer
stalking the children's ward

at Grantham and Kesteven
Hospital in Lincolnshire,

but nobody knew it.

22-year-old nurse
Beverley Allitt's job

was to protect
the children in her care,

but she abused her role.

She was purposely harming them.

Her crimes were horrific
and ruined the lives of many,

including the families
of her innocent victims.

-As a judge set
to take her down,

there were emotional scenes
in the public gallery

with families
bursting into tears.

One woman jumped up, shouting,
"Bastard, bastard."

Another shouted,
"Lock her in a cage."

-Beverley Allitt had tried
to get away with murder.

Her story begins
over two decades earlier.

Beverley Allitt was born
on the 4th of October, 1968,

in the small Lincolnshire
village of Corby Glen.

She was one of four children.

-There don't seem to be
any real red flags

in Beverley Allitt's background
that would suggest

that she'd go on
to do the things she did,

so normally, when we have
a serial killer,

we have an abusive
or a violent childhood.

There's something that's there
in the background,

but with Beverley Allitt,

there doesn't seem to be

any real powerful
explanatory factor.

-Fast-forward to April 1991.

22-year-old Beverley Allitt

had been working on
the children's ward

at Grantham and Kesteven
Hospital for three months.

One of the consultants on Ward 4
was Dr. Charith Nanayakkara.

-My first impressions
about Beverley Allitt

was nothing outstanding.

She was just another quiet,

pleasant, obliging nurse
who was available.

-During Allitt's short time
on the ward,

three children
had died suddenly,

and a further nine
had fallen seriously ill

under suspicious circumstances.

On April the 22nd, 1991,
Beverley Allitt was on duty

when 15-month-old Claire Peck
was admitted to Ward 4.

She was under the care of the
two consultants at the hospital,

Dr. Frederick Porter
and Dr. Nanayakkara.

-Claire Peck, she had come
with a severe attack of asthma,

breathing difficulties,
requiring oxygen,

so Dr. Porter was called,
and he had come.

He had tried to resuscitate and
provide all the necessary care

as appropriate,

and Beverley Allitt, on this
occasion, had been with him.

In spite of all
the efforts taken,

Dr. Porter couldn't
resuscitate her,

and she had died within hours.

-Claire Peck was the fourth
child to die unexpectedly

at Grantham and Kesteven
Hospital in 3 months.

It was an alarming number
in such a short space of time.

-I said I really don't know
what's going on

and got together with Dr. Porter
and the senior nursing manager

and checked through
all the cases

of worrying, suspicions,
and uncertainties we had.

I compiled a report and sent it
to unit general manager, saying,

"We have series
of these unexplained

and sometimes
explained collapses.

We are very worried
about these problems,

and therefore, their want
to bring it to your notice.

We need your help."

-On the 30th of April,
the hospital decided

to ask the police
to investigate the deaths

to see if there
could be something

or someone casting
a shadow over Ward 4.

The case found its way

to Chief Superintendent
Stuart Clifton.

-One of my dividend sergeants
at Grantham contacted me to say

that he'd had a call
from Grantham Hospital,

which suggested that
they'd had a high number

of collapses of children,

which may or may not be down
to some criminal act.

When I use the term "collapse,"
I'm talking in terms

of each of them
having stopped breathing,

and the resuscitation team,

known colloquially
as the "crash team,"

were called to resuscitate
the children.

There were two pediatricians
employed at the hospital

and Dr. Porter
and Dr. Nanayakkara,

who had differing opinions

about whether
the collapses of children

at that hospital over a period
of about three months

were actually medically related

or whether they were
at the hands of somebody

who was causing those collapses.

-After a meeting
between detectives and doctors

on the 3rd of May,

it was decided they'd ask
Professional David Hull,

an expert on pediatrics,

to give his insight
on each of the cases.

-He set out, in some detail,

his findings
but concluded by saying,

"Of the 13 children
that I've looked at,

I think that there
are only three

that are worthy
of further investigation.

In two of these cases,

I feel that there will be
a medical explanation,

and in one case, a little boy
called Paul Crampton,

I think it's worthy
of further investigation."

-Five-month-old Paul Crampton
had been admitted to Ward 4

on the 20th of March 1991,
with a chest infection.

His dad, David,
remembers it well.

-Paul was actually born with
measles, and he was taken home,

and then after a relatively
short period, a few months,

Kath took him
to the doctor, my wife,

and he had a wheeze.

They were, I think,
overcautious,

but that's the right thing
with a child of that age,

and they took him into hospital.

-The first 3 days of his care
were completely unremarkable,

and he was expected
to go home on that third day.

During the course of that day,
Beverley Allitt

brought to the attention
of other nurses

the fact that this little boy
was having difficulty breathing.

-I walked into a scene
I did not expect,

and that was Paul
in the arms of the nurse,

I think,
at that particular time.

He was cold, clammy, gray,
and I recall

that Nurse Beverley Allitt
was there,

and she said, at the time,
"This child is hyperglycemic."

The doctor had been called.

The doctor came, and Paul was
taken into the treatment room,

and he disappeared for what
seemed to be an eternity

before we were allowed
into the treatment room,

and I remember Paul sat there,
playing with his toes.

He seemed to have made
a total recovery.

-The following day,
which was a Sunday,

Beverley Allitt
went to take the drip down,

and within the space
of a few minutes,

the boy was, once again,
hyperglycemic.

-So, obviously, that was
quite frightening, so we went,

within a very
short space of time,

from a child that's coming home

to a child
that's now seriously ill

and without
too much explanation.

-Three days later,
this little boy

is expected to go home that day

because he's continued
to recover from his attacks.

At about 10 minutes to 12:00,

the boy's father goes up
to the hospital

canteen to get himself
a sandwich,

and when he returns some
20 minutes or so later,

he finds a little boy
that is gray,

arched back and clearly
in some form of distress.

-Word came from the ward
that Paul had collapsed again,

and colleague crashed through,

and when he saw his collapse,

he immediately called
the team from Nottingham

and transferred him.

-He went in the ambulance both
with my wife and with a doctor,

and Nurse Beverley Allitt
went in the ambulance with him.

I remember walking into the ward
at Queen's Medical Center,

and it was just a totally
different atmosphere,

calm, relaxed.

Paul was in intensive care,
but you got the feeling

that he was just
going to get better,

and he did.

-Transferring Paul Crampton

to Queen's Medical
Center in Nottingham

had saved his life.

Tests reveal the insulin
in his blood,

which is usually between
4 and 6 milliunits per liter,

was alarmingly high.

-Dr. Porter had taken blood,
which had been sent

to the University Hospital
at Cardiff

for examination.

The insulin in the blood
of Paul Crampton, at 47,000,

is the second-highest
ever recorded in the world.

-He was fortunate enough
to survive, and it just felt

that he had abnormal
external insulin administered.

-I think, when we got
the blood results,

I began to realize that
there was a serial killer

that was working on that ward

and was causing the collapses
of these children.

-I had a call
from Grantham Police,

and it was,

"We'd like to come to see you,
won't tell you what it is,

but we'll come
and see you tomorrow."

And so I had an office
in Grantham at the time,

and the sergeant walked in,
and then he said,

"We have reason to believe
that Paul's illness,

hyperglycemic attacks,

were a result of
maladministration of drugs,"

and I remember my words exactly.

"That would explain a lot,
wouldn't it?"

-It was unthinkable.

With someone at Grantham
and Kesteven Hospital

murdering helpless children,

the police had to investigate
each of the cases

to try and find the killer.

They would begin
with 7-week-old Liam Taylor

who was admitted
on the 21st of February, 1991,

just two days after
Nurse Beverley Allitt

had begun working on Ward 4.

They had to tread carefully.

-In a health-care setting,
it is very difficult

to investigate a murder
or a suspectedmurder

because all of the individuals
on that ward

have a legitimate
reason to be there.

They have the access
to the victim anyway,

and often, it's very difficult
to prove that direct link

between one particular
member of staff

and one particular victim,
so the police have got a really,

really difficult job
on their hands

when they're investigating
this type of crime.

-And it wasn't going
to get any easier.

-About a week or so
into the inquiry,

the whole investigation
was blown by the local paper,

and of course, then, the world's
press descended on Grantham.

-Local radio reporter
Sean Dunderdale

was one of the first journalists
to latch onto the story.

-No one has ever experienced
a story like this before.

We kind of heard rumors.

We know the police
were involved at the hospital,

that something was happening,

but exactly what,
I mean, at that stage,

I don't think even the police
knew what they were facing,

what they were coping with.

Because nobody knew
what was happening,

there wasn't that much
information to start with,

and slowly, it started
to develop as a story that,

clearly, something big
was happening at Grantham,

that there was
a major investigation,

and eventually, it did sort of
get out there into the media

that there had been certainly
a number of odd occurrences

involving children
in the children's ward.

-Detectives began to approach
family members of the victims

with the shocking news
that their children

may have been
deliberately attacked

by an active serial killer.

-In the early stages
of the investigation,

the parents were certainly
at an attitude

that suggested that the police
should not be interfering

with an investigation
of this type.

I think it's fair to say that,

as the teams began to
investigate the circumstances,

and they became more and more
aware of the circumstances

surrounding the collapse
of their child,

they became
more and more on-board.

-Police had to try
and find a link

between all 13 of the children
who'd been affected.

They began with the first
suspicious case,

the death of 7-week-old
Liam Taylor

who'd been left under the care
of a new staff nurse,

Beverley Allitt.

-On the 21st of February
of 1991,

he was taken
to Grantham Hospital

and was seen by one
of the pediatricians

and diagnosed
with bronchiolitis.

A couple of hours later,

they see their child
with just a nappy on.

He's clearly terribly
distressed, and the nurse,

Beverley Allitt, explains that,
during the course of feeding,

he'd vomited and choked.

The next evening,
the two parents decide

to stay in the hospital.

The mom is so tired
that she goes to bed early,

and the father stays up.

He looks in on the child
just before midnight,

after having had a shower
at the hospital,

sees that there's
a nurse with him.

He goes off to bed, thinking
that the problems are over,

and he's awoken about
5:00 in the morning

by the night sister
who asked him to come

because Liam has relapsed.

The child is blue, back arched,

and Dr. Nanayakkara tells them
that he stopped breathing,

and they'd had some difficulty
restarting the heart.

Later that morning, Liam dies.

♪♪

-Sadly, I had to share
with the parents and said,

"Look, this is impossible,
but I can't do anything more."

I felt so sad.

He died in my hands.

-The last nurse to tend to Liam
before his death

was Beverley Allitt,

who joined the ward
just 4 days previously.

It was her first-ever
nursing role.

-So Beverley Allitt had applied
to other hospitals,

other departments for a job
as a nurse upon her

completing her qualifications,

and she'd been turned
down by all of them.

When Ward 4 employed
Beverley Allitt,

it was because they were
incredibly short-staffed.

They were pretty desperate.

They needed more nurses on duty,
and normally,

they wouldn't have taken
Beverley Allitt on

because she didn't have the
correct level of qualifications,

the usuallevel
of qualifications

that they would ask for,

so it was desperation, really.

-Allitt had begun training
as a nurse at 16.

Even at a young age,

she seemed to have an unhealthy
fascination with hospitals.

-She was a regular
in the A&E department.

She would constantly
turn up there,

complaining of various
symptoms and illnesses,

and she got a bit
of a reputation

amongst the staff there,

so they were very
surprised to learn

that she was a trainee nurse,

and the dots just simply
weren't joined up

because, often,
when somebody is a nurse,

and they're training as a nurse,
you're only seeing them,

you know, during that
part of their day.

You're not seeing
the bigger picture.

-Detectives investigating these
suspicious incidents on Ward 4

had begun to look into each case
to find a common link.

Beverley Allitt
had again been on duty

on the 5th of March, 1991,

the day that Timothy Hardwick
was admitted.

-Timothy Hardwick was
an 11-year-old boy.

He had a lot of problems
in his life.

He suffered with Cerebral Palsy
and was epileptic.

He had an epileptic fit
in school in Newark.

As a result, he was transferred
to Grantham Hospital

where doctors managed to get
his fitting under control.

A very, very short time after
Beverley had been left with him,

this child suddenly
stops breathing.

She raises the alarm,
and the crash team recalls.

-One of the staff nurses
came to my office and said,

"Dr. Nanayakkara, can you please
come and see Timothy?

He is not well."

Apparently, he had collapsed,
and then when I went there,

I tried to resuscitate him,

but by that time, he virtually
had no signs of life.

-Sadly, they can't resuscitate
him, and the child dies.

Just five days later
on March the 10th,

14-month-old Kayley Desmond
was on Ward 4,

suffering with
a chest infection.

After being left alone
with Allitt

for some one-to-one nursing,

Kayley had an unexpected
heart attack.

-Beverley Allitt was seen
in the room

and actually called
other nurses to go

and have a look, which was
one of her common things.

She would call
other nurses to say,

"Come and have a look
at this child,"

and then the crash team
would be called.

-Kayley survived the collapse

and was transferred
to another hospital.

Due to the massive toll the
arrest put on her young body,

she was left brain damaged.

Detectives investigating
the unusual pattern of patient

collapses on Ward 4
found a clue in Kayley's X-rays.

-We were able to show
that there was needle-tracking

under the arm of this
little girl and an air bubble,

which had obviously
caused the equivalent

of what we would call
a heart attack.

-This mysterious needle mark
was further proof

to detectives they were
dealing with a killer.

They'd already discovered
the high insulin count

in the blood of Paul Crampton,
who survived.

They continued their
investigations with the cases

of two more suspiciously
ill children,

Bradley Gibson and
2-year-old Yik Chan.

-Bradley Gibson is admitted
under Dr. Porter.

He was about 5 or 6 years old
and had breathing difficulties.

Dr. Porter had treated him
with possible chest infection,

and he then suddenly
had stopped breathing

and stopped his heartbeat,
as well,

what you call a cardiac arrest,
which is extremely rare.

Dr. Porter had tried repeatedly
to resuscitate him

with the defibrillator.

He managed to get him round,
extremely fortunate.

-Yik Chan was admitted with
a suspected fractured skull.

He was in the hospital
for a couple of days,

and he's charging
around the place.

There's clearly not
very much wrong with him.

One particular evening,
Beverley Allitt

is going off-duty, and she
speaks to the oncoming nurse

at about 9 o'clock
in the evening

and said,
"Can you have a look in at Chan?

He's crying,
and he's not very well."

The oncoming nurse
goes into the room

and finds him with his back
arched and blue,

and the crash team were called,
and he's resuscitated.

-Bradley Gibson and Yik Chan
both survived unscathed.

Three-month-old identical twins
Katie and Becky Phillips

were not so lucky.

The pair were born prematurely

and were regular visitors
to Ward 4.

In early April 1991,

they were back and being treated
by Dr. Nanayakkara.

-They had repeated admissions,
not surprisingly, again,

with a variety of illnesses,
diarrhea,

vomiting, breathing difficulties
and so on and so forth,

and the parents, quite rightly,
were very worried

and brought them
straight to the hospital

rather than going to the GP.

I had seen them and discharged
them, reassured the parents,

but the same night, Becky was
brought to the crash-team staff,

taking lots of effort
to resuscitate her,

but she was virtually dead,

so I had a long discussion
with the parents.

They were completely shocked,
and they were very, very upset.

I left some blood samples
in the laboratory

for any future
investigations, if needed.

-And we subsequently found
that blood and had it analyzed,

and that contained
9,660 milliunits

per liter of insulin
in the blood,

and you always have to remember,
with these huge figures,

that a child should have
15 to 20 milliunits,

so it's horrendous.

-Later on that same day,
April the 5th,

Dr. Nanayakkara
asked Becky's parents

to bring her twin sister,
Katie, in as a precaution.

-Katie's taken into hospital,
and that afternoon,

she's allocated to the care
of Beverley Allitt.

One of the senior nurses
goes to that particular room

to see what's going on.

As she enters, she sees
Beverley Allitt

nursing the child in her arms.

The child is crying.

She sees the child collapse
within Beverley Allitt's arms,

and the crash team are called.

They manage to resuscitate
Katie, who is later transferred,

but over the next three days,

the child, Katie,
suffers convulsions,

and this child
is severely brain damaged

as a result of what occurred.

Now, during my investigation,
Detective Inspector Jones

managed to find X-rays

that were taken at the time.

This child had squeeze injuries,

which had broken
a number of ribs.

-This was further evidence
that proved to detectives

that something very sinister
was happening on Ward 4

in Grantham and Kesteven
Hospital.

Between the deaths of Becky
Phillips on the 5th of April

and Claire Peck
on April the 22nd,

four more boys had been
admitted with minor symptoms

and unexpectedly
came close to death.

That made a total of 13
suspicious incidents --

four deaths and nine
close calls --

but now, investigators
have the arduous task

of making a list of suspects.

One of the names on that list

was a woman who always
seemed to be on duty

whenever something went wrong --

22-year-old staff
nurse Beverley Allitt.

In May 1991,
police were investigating

a spate of mysterious
deaths and illnesses

on the children's ward

at Grantham and Kesteven
Hospital in Lincolnshire.

After digging deeper
into the individual cases,

they were certain they
were chasing a serial killer.

-There's clear evidence
of air injected

under the arm of one child.

There's evidence
of squeeze injuries.

There's evidence of insulin.

What was a common factor

with the vast majority
of these children

was that each of them
had a cannula fitted, a site,

usually in the back
of their hand,

where drugs or drips
can be administered through,

so injecting cardiotoxic drugs
would not be very difficult

because it could go in
through the IV port.

-This is quite a common method
for, firstly,

a female serial killer

and a health care serial killer.

Poison is a very common
method used by these people.

It's accessible.

It's something that is not going
to immediately cause concern

because this is something
that's already

in that hospital
environment anyway,

and also, poisoning
is quite a remote method

of killing somebody.

You're not up close
and personal with them.

It's not messy.

You can administer the poison
and then leave the scene.

You don't have to see them
suffer the effects of it.

Chief Superintendent
Stuart Clifton and his team

interviewed all the staff
members on Ward 4,

and a new piece
of evidence emerged

that suddenly became crucial.

-I began to look at
the circumstances of insulin

in Grantham Hospital,

and I found that it was kept
in locked fridges on the wards,

and on the children's ward,

the key to the fridge
had gone missing

three days before
the first child had collapsed.

Beverley Allitt was
the last-known person

to have that key,

but no hospital investigation
had actually taken place.

-Beverley Allitt's name
kept cropping up.

She always seemed to be
at the hospital

when the incidents occurred,

and the staff duty
rota confirmed this.

-What we discovered was that,
for every collapse,

Beverley Allitt
was the only nurse

that was on duty
on every occasion,

and on many of these occasions,

we could actually put her
right at the bedside,

either at the time
of the collapse or just before.

-On the 21st of May, 1991,

Stuart Clifton
made the brave decision

of having
Beverley Allitt arrested.

-I basically couldn't
take the chance that,

if she was still
working on there,

she would harm more children,

albeit that I hadn't completed
the investigation by any means.

We were merely scraping
the surface at that time.

So she was arrested,
and the house was searched.

During the course
of that search,

we found a hospital pillowcase,

a used syringe and
a little child's notebook,

and it was headed
"allocations book."

-This allocations book had
gone missing from Ward 4.

It detailed the names
of children

who needed extra attention

and which nurse
was allocated to them.

It was not only further proof

that Allitt had been
caring for the children

who died but evidence

that she was hiding the
information from her colleagues.

-Beverley Allitt was interviewed
at the police station

over the course of two days.

She made no admissions.

In fact, she went so far
as to distance herself

from all the events
at that hospital,

saying things such as,
"I wasn't there on that day.

I didn't come on duty
until after that had happened,"

so she completely
distanced herself,

maintained her innocence.

She was a very strange girl
in the interview

in that she would talk
to you quite normally

or talk to the interviewing
officers quite normally

about things
like football, pop music,

and the minute you got down

to actually talking
about the events

at Grantham Hospital,

she became a completely
different person.

-When news of the arrest broke,

the press knew
this was a huge story.

-Once the investigation
went that one step further,

and obviously, a nurse
had been arrested,

a nurse was clearly
under investigation,

they had to go public with that,

and that's when
it all exploded, really.

That's when the world's media
were suddenly interested

because it had never
been heard of before,

that a nurse would
do such a thing.

You know, it's such a rarity
and, certainly in this country,

a first.

The whole of Grantham was
just surrounded by journalists,

TV crews from around
the world, newspapers.

-Allitt's arrest was also a huge
shock for the victims' families.

-I felt mixed emotions.

One is, "Who would want
to harm a child?"

But secondly, we now know
what was wrong with Paul,

and thank God it's not
anything to do with Paul.

It's not a medical problem.

It is an outside influence.

-Stewart Clifton and his team
were convinced

that Allitt was
behind the deaths,

but they had no proof.

She was released on bail
without charge.

-I convinced the hospital
that they need to suspend

Beverly Allitt from duty

because we couldn't
take the chance,

and they couldn't
take the chance

that another child
would be attacked.

-The police needed
to build a case.

If they were right about Allitt,

then they just released
a serial killer into the public.

Chief Superintendent
Stewart Clifton

turned back to the expert,

who just a month previously,

had concluded the majority
of the cases

could be explained medically.

-I asked David Hall to go away

and re-look at the case notes
of the children,

but to use the statements
that my team had taken,

which detailed the circumstances
of the collapse

of each of these children.

He agreed to do that.

-Months passed as
Stewart Clifton and his team

built the case against
Beverly Allitt,

and by November 1991,

Professor Hall had reexamined
his original case notes.

Based on the new evidence
found by detectives,

he agreed that all the incidents
could be viewed as suspicious.

On the 20th of November,
Allitt was arrested once more.

-The former nurse is charged
with the murder

of four children.

She also faces eight charges
of attempted murder

of eight other children.

She faces a further eight
charges of causing grievous

bodily harm with intent.

-She was due to appear at
the Grantham Magistrate's Court

the next day.

Bear in mind,
this is a young girl

that's never been
in police custody before.

At 9:00 the next morning,

one of the policewomen
had to go and wake her up.

She didn't appear to have
a care in the world.

-There wasn't very much
in the way of remorse.

She didn't cry.

There was no kind of real
visible reaction in her.

So I think she does have
that kind of cold personality.

She's orchestrated all
of these terrible events,

but she doesn't feel
any impact from them.

She's somebody who doesn't have
the same feelings and emotions

as the rest of us.

-During the 15-month wait
for her trial,

the stunned press began to
uncover Beverly Allitt's history

of faking illnesses
and self-harming.

-The more we dug into Allitt's
background, again,

the more unbelievable it became.

And the one question
our listeners would ask is,

"How? How did nobody spot
all of this,

and allow her to continue
being a nurse?

How did she get through
that recruitment process?"

-We got her authorization
from her to have a look

at her medical records.

They indicated,
going back to childhood,

that Beverly liked to be
the center of attention.

There were incidents
while she was at school

where she would sprain a finger

and demand that her arm
be put in a sling.

-I think it's tempting
to let look back and say,

"They should have
picked up on that.

They should have known
that this was somebody

who was not quite right."

But I don't think they would
have automatically made the link

between somebody who was
perhaps harming themselves,

and somebody who would then
go on to harm other people.

Nurses care for their patients.

They want to preserve
their lives and enhance

that quality of life.

So to think that a nurse
would do this,

it's almost unthinkable.

-On February the 15th 1993,
24-year-old Beverly Allitt

was in Nottingham Crown Court,

charged with the murder
of four children

and the attempted murder
of a further nine.

Her not-guilty plea

meant a trial
would have to take place.

-For much of the time,
Beverly was not there

because she was
suffering from anorexia

and was supposedly
too ill to attend trial.

The judge, in his wisdom,

ruled that it should go ahead
without her.

-The court case was a very
harrowing experience.

I mean, it was a long,
drawn-out affair.

Beverly Allitt wasn't in court
for a lot of it.

Again, I think some
of that manipulation

that she was known for,

some of the manipulation she had
clearly done in the hospital,

she was trying it
with the court case as well,

and I know that was having
an impact on family members.

They knew of their own
individual case,

but the actual scale of it,

apart from what they'd read
in the media,

heard on the radio,

it was the first time
they'd actually heard

exactly what had been happening
at Grantham Hospital.

-I mean, that was quite dramatic
because obviously it was

a significant media interest,

and we couldn't
walk down the street

from the car park
to the court case

without having microphones
stuffed under our nose

and cameras flashing.

And yet, there was
a lot of emotion,

and a lot of emotion
around that time, clearly.

-You couldn't just go home
and, you know, close the door

and put the TV on
and forget about it.

It just was all-encompassing.

It was the only thing that was
on my mind throughout the case

and for a long time
afterwards, as well.

-In the times that Allitt
was in the courtroom,

she seemed completely distanced

from what was going
on around her.

-I firmly believe she felt

the families would
still be on her side

because, you know,
they had been very close.

You know, they thought that,
certainly initially,

in those initial stages,
that, you know,

she'd helped save,

or tried to save,
their child's life.

And so in court, you know,
she would smile at them.

-To the outside world,
a lot of the evidence

may have seemed circumstantial,

but as the trial went on,

it became clear the case
against Allitt was a strong one.

-For a long time, people
believed it must be a mistake.

You know,

a nurse surely wouldn't be
responsible for that.

There must be some
other explanation for it.

But then, slowly,
as the evidence was revealed,

you could see that tide turning,

that people suddenly realized,
complete revulsion,

that a nurse, of all people,
would do that.

You know, suddenly, like,
"Well, if I can't trust a nurse,

who can I trust?"

And I think that was a real
shock to the nation.

It resonated right across the
country when those actual facts

came out about what
Beverly Allitt had done.

-During the trial, the jury
heard from experts who believe

that Allitt had been suffering
with a mental illness

throughout her life,

which caused her
to commit the murders.

-The Munchausen syndrome
is a condition,

which basically means

that people will invent
symptoms in themselves

in order to gain the attention
of medical professionals.

There's also Munchausen
syndrome by proxy.

This is when somebody invents
symptoms in somebody else

in order to get attention
from medical professionals,

and that somebody else
is often a child

or somebody who you're
in charge of the care of.

-I think she's certainly ill,
and there has to be

an element of evil

somewhere within that
because people can be ill

without wishing to cause
harm to other people.

-On the 28th of May 1993,
after a draining 3-month trial,

the jury had reached a decision.

-I think the moment we were
called back into the court

is something,

you know, we'll always,
certainly, I'll always remember.

It was very tense,
you know, very quiet.

A member of the jury stood up,

and that first verdict
came in of guilty,

and there was just a, again,
an intake of breath,

lasted just a couple of seconds.

Then, someone, I remember,
shouted, "Yes."

And I think there was
a couple of people clapping,

and then tears
from the families,

tears from members
of the public.

It was a very difficult job
for the police to actually say,

"You know, without doubt,
Beverly Allitt was responsible."

So there was always that
possibility the jury could have

just tipped the other way,

and thankfully, you know,
that guilty verdict came in.

I think it was a huge sense
of relief for everyone.

-On May the 28th 1993,

Judge Mr. Justice Latham
sentenced Beverly Allitt

to 13 concurrent life sentences,

one for each of the charges
against her.

A relieved David Crampton made a
statement outside the courtroom.

-Well, I saw Beverly Allitt
as rather a pathetic figure,

really, and when we listen
to her medical evidence,

we probably could conclude that
these tragedies were inevitable.

-There was clearly some
massive media interest

associated with the Allitt case,
both pre and post the trial.

That was pretty easy
for me and my family

because Paul was
at home and well.

If Paul...

If something worse
had happened to Paul,

such as had happened
to other families,

how would I have
conducted myself?

I don't know.

Thankfully,
I'll never have to know.

Paul is 26 years old.

He has a house, and he has a
long-time partner, lovely girl.

He's got a career.

Paul is doing very well,
very, very well.

-Beverly Allitt was immediately
sent to Holloway Prison,

but after just
a week behind bars,

she was transferred
to Rampton Secure Hospital

in Nottinghamshire.

-I think the fact that
Beverly Allitt has ended up

in a secure hospital

is a really interesting
one for me

because this is somebody who,

before developing
Munchausen syndrome by proxy,

could have been argued to have
just Munchausen syndrome.

So she was fabricating illnesses
and symptoms in herself

before she was harming
other people.

She was going after
that role as the patient.

She wanted to be seen, you know,
by medical professionals

and play that sick role.

She's essentially achieved
what she set out to achieve.

She's got that status
of the patient,

which she always wanted.

-What do I think about where
Allitt is serving her sentence?

I don't waste
any energy on that.

I don't really think about it.

She doesn't enjoy the same
freedoms that I do

and the rest of my family

and the vast majority of
the population in this country.

She's in a prison, whether
that is more comfortable

than perhaps some people would
like is a bit academic really.

-In December 1993,

Central Television
interviewed Beverly Allitt

inside Rampton Hospital as part
of a special news report.

-She enjoys relative
luxury and freedom

within the maximum
security ward.

The parents of her victims
who gave their approval

for these pictures
to be included

in Central TV's
the "Tuesday Special"

tonight believe
she should be in prison.

-It's not too bad.
-What's a good thing about it?

-Well, I've got
more freedom in here.

-You like it better than
where you were before?

-Yes.
-Why?

-Because I got more freedom.

I'm not locked up all the time.

-Stewart Clifton also visited
Allitt inside Rampton in 1994,

determined to get
the truth out of her.

-She made admissions
at that time.

She admitted nine
of the 13 cases

that she'd been convicted of.

She wouldn't have anything to do
with the two Phillips' cases.

The minute that I began
to press her for details

about precisely what she'd done,
what she'd used,

she just walked away from me,

wouldn't answer
any more questions.

-There are plenty of question
left unanswered,

especially for the loved ones

of the victims
of Beverly Allitt.

-Allitt's crimes are like
dropping a pebble

into a pool of water.

Those ripples spread far more,
a dramatic effect,

clearly on the families,
the families of the victims,

but their extended family,

grandparents, parents,
et cetera, and, of course,

a dramatic effect
on the hospital and its staff.

So her crimes went far more
into the community,

not just the immediate
people affected.

-I think Beverly Allitt
was really most at home

when she was
in the middle of drama,

so she was deliberately
creating the drama

and then casting herself
in a leading role within it.

-There's a real impact there of,
you know,

it could have been
a family member, you know.

It's the local hospital.

One of my members
of my younger family

could have gone
into the hospital

to be cared for by a nurse
and look what happened.

And that the thing
with this story, you know,

it could have happened
to absolutely anyone.

The parents who were affected
by that were purely unlucky

that their child went
into that hospital on that day,

and that Beverly Allitt
was their nurse.

-We may never understand
why Beverly Allitt intentionally

set out to poison the children
she was meant to care for.

Her lust for attention
turned from selfish to deadly,

and for three months in 1991,

she acted upon it
in the most horrific manner.

Nobody on Ward 4 was safe,

but the determination
of doctors and police

brought justice for all
the victims' families

and proved that Beverly Allitt,
the Angel of Death,

was a cold-blooded killer.

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