nurse murders four elderly women…
March 3, 2008 by sparklematrix
Colin Norris a staff nurse from Glasgow is convicted of murdering four frail elderly women and the attempted murder of one other by administrating overdoses of Insulin.
However, I doubt that this femicide will garner as much media attention as the more sensationalist murders of ‘drug addicted, prostituted women.’ I also doubt that the media will talk of their ’naked bodies’ laid out in ‘crucifix style’ or their hair colour or what they were wearing because let’s face it sex isn’t involved or any other cheap male titillation factor.
No, these elderly women have simply died in an unfortunate manner at the hands of another misogynist who used his position of privilege to gain access to the object of his hatred.
Norris, 32, from Egilsay Terrace, Glasgow, who once said he disliked caring for “geriatric patients”, killed the elderly women and tried to murder another while he worked at two Leeds hospitals in 2002.
His victims were Ethel Hall, 86, from Calverley in Leeds, Doris Ludlam, 80, from Pudsey in West Yorkshire, Bridget Bourke, 88, from Holbeck, Leeds, and Irene Crookes, 79, from Leeds. Norris was also convicted of the attempted murder of Vera Wilby, 90, from Rawdon in Leeds.
Of course, nurses murdering their patients is nothing new and we may remember Beverly Allitt who was convicted of killing four children and injuring five others, in 1991, on the children’s ward of Grantham and Kesteven Hospital where she worked. She has since become one of Britain’s most notorious female serial killers and rightly so, however, I doubt that Norris will receive such notoriety.
Even though, strictly speaking, both groups of victims are the most vulnerable members of our society.
I‘ve always struggled with the notion of people dying in horrific circumstances. I‘m an idealist in this respect and it disturbs me to realise that some folks deaths are traumatic, thoughtlessly attended or even unnecessary as in this case where to be murdered by your care giver for what ever ‘reason’ is inexcusable.
I give my sympathies to the victims and their loved ones.
So why didn’t he get another job then if he disliked geriatrics so much? I mean I’m not fond of certain people I work with, but I’ve stopped short of bumping them off. And if he disliked all geriatrics why only murder women? Let us not forget the Uk’s most prolific mass murderer Harold Shipman who also killed far more women than men.
Because he was on a mission to kill women, same as Shipman. What better a job for a misogynist than nursing/medicine where you have access to vulnerable women.
Quite right Sparkle male misogynsts (because there are women who hate women) are often to be found within the medical profession. Also, working in medicine/nursing gives these male misogynists an ideal opportunity to abuse their positions of power and trust. Not all misogynsts working within the medical profession commit femicide but a large number of these males do sexually abuse and rape female patients.
Colin Norris is another male who deliberately committed femicide and sadly his crimes will not warrant more than a few sentences. Unlike Beverly Allitt he is not female and therefore he will not be subjected to claims he is a ‘deviant.’ Only when women commit murder are they accused of being ‘abnormal’ and acting outside their supposed gender role. Shipman was another male misogynst and yes attempts were made to deflect attention away from the fact he primarily targetted elderly women simply because they were women and disadvantaged.
As Polly Styrene rightly pointed out this man Norris admitted he loathes elderly patients so why did not Norris seek employment wherein he would not have to come in contact with these patients. No, instead Norris made the choice to deliberately commit femicide.
There’s plenty of misogyny and sexual abuse in health care, believe me. Some of it (especially when I was just a young student nurse) I couldn’t always quite put my finger on it, until I wised up. I can’t tell you how many times that I (and this sounds bizarre) and other nurses have been sexually harassed by male staff using unconscious females’ bodies. This used to be a common game played by some misogynistic theatre technicians.
Well, it’s fairly obvious, he didn’t ‘just dislike geriatrics’, but specifically female geriatrics (after all, there are many male geriatrics about, yet 5 out of 5, he targetted female).
I know I’m going to sound like an asshole but they were pretty much at the end of the road.
No spal, you sound like a child who runs into a living room squealing “Oh look I shitted on your floor and wiped my bumz on the curtains - iz im a bad boy?”
Answer “no not really - just a fuckwit - now get back in the wheelie bin”
Oh criminy, Sparkle, what’s a wheelie bin? I need to know in the most dogawful worst way.
I mean, I understand it is a place to keep your fuckwits handy, I just wondered what the original purpose of a wheelie bin might have been.
thebewilderness - the wheelie bin is a UK device for garbage collection which the local councils have inflicted upon us. Basically, it’s a rather large green thing with wheels for rubbish. Also handy for fuckwits.
Look a picture…
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/43/Wheelie_Bin.jpg/436px-Wheelie_Bin.jpg&imgrefurl=http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Wheelie_Bin.jpg&h=599&w=436&sz=47&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=Crv8rvvLSHpEpM:&tbnh=135&tbnw=98&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwheelie%2Bbin%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-GB:official%26sa%3DN
what i think is profound too is that many geriatrics ARE women (remember that in many nations, especially “First World” nations, women tend to outlive men by quite a few years). I think this was probably Norris’s motivation for killing these vulnerable women.
It is amazing to me too how in Western culture we really value elderly folk so so little, it’s like younger people have a great abhorrence for them.
How disgusting and sad this is. My thoughts go to these women’s souls, and to their families.
Hah! Makes perfect sense, thanks.
Yes, Sparkle totally agree with you there is immense misogyny and male sexual harassment of women with all aspects of the medial profession. I also include pyschology, pyschotherapy and not forgetting gynaecology.
All these professions are male dominated and it does attract those women-hating women because it gives these men the opportunity of exerting power, sexual control and sexual abuse of women. All of which are often ignored by the medical profession as just ‘hysterical women complaining!’
Now psychologist, Dr. David Humes, senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University theorises that Norris committed these femicides because he (Norris) was searching for a sense of power! Of course Norris already had power and this is often the reason why so many men enter the medical profession because it gives them the chance to exercise their power over women and enables them to abuse their positions of trust. Male power is central to Norris’s case. Bobbie Chadwick, deputy President of Royal College of Nursing claims Norris was ‘one very sick rogue.’ So, pathologising Norris is used to excuse his crimes. Denials again of men’s accountability and responsibility for systematically committing violence against women.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/7268730.stm
There’s huge male power and ego issues in medicine and if they’re going to pathologise misogynists then there’s a lot of deranged men (and women) out there. I’m surprised in the RCN’s Bobbie Chadwick using the word ’sick’ to describe Norris, unless she’s just trying to instill some public confidence. The majority of people (and their loved ones) are scared shitless when they come into hospital anyway without having to worry about the nursing staff murdering you.
male power, male ego and medicine…
the lord who made his comments (which i have yet to read so i’m shooting in the dark and using my partner’s summing up as a guide) about nurses being filthy mentioned they were talking over him (probably discussing how to help him but i wouldn’t know) (wouldn’t know how to go about helping yer average tory peer either, but my guess would involve an arse and a steel toe-cap). i think that would be what really provoked him. lesser beings talking when he should have been talking, in charge when he should have been in charge and probably enjoying doing their job when he didn’t. i think from the tone of his remarks the nurses that annoyed him were women.
hmmm 2 plus 2……