Between December 2003 and February 2004, at least 17 patients suffered respiratory arrests for then-unknown reasons. While 15 patients recovered soon after, two patients died in January 2004: Anthony Bateman and David Onley.
Geen, who was on duty during these incidents, was arrested on February 9, 2004, whereupon a syringe filled with a lethal dose of muscle relaxant was discovered in his pocket.
The hospital found 27 cases that Geen could have been involved in, though 9 were discounted and Geen was acquitted of one other case.
During his trial, the Oxford Crown Court was told that Geen purposely used potentially lethal doses of drugs to cause patients to stop breathing because he enjoyed the thrill of resuscitating them. He was found guilty in April 2006, and the trial judge recommended that he should spend at least 30 years in prison before being considered for parole. This recommendation is likely to keep him behind bars until at least 2035.
Nurse 'Took Patients To The Brink'
News.Sky.com
Wednesday February 15, 2006
A nurse took 18 patients to the brink of death so he could experience the buzz of reviving them, a court has heard. Benjamin Geen, 25, gave drugs to his alleged victims to stop them breathing.
The thrill-seeker would then "enjoy the excitement of trying to revive them," prosecutor Michael Austin-Smith, QC, told Oxford Crown Court.
Sixteen of the patients survived. But two of them died.
"In the course of a nine-week period, he deliberately administered drugs or other substances to patients in order to make them collapse so he could enjoy the excitement of trying to revive them," Mr Austin-Smith said.
"It's the prosecution's submission that this defendant loved these moments of drama.
"As he was later to tell police in interview, he hated the dullness of the minor side (non-critical section of A&E). He preferred to be where the action is."
Green, of Banbury, worked at the accident and emergency department at Horton General Hospital in Banbury, Oxfordshire.
He denies two of the murder of David Onley, 77, from Deddington, between January 20 and 23 2004 and Anthony Bateman, 67, from Banbury, on January 6 2004.
He also denies 18 charges of causing grievous bodily harm with intent to 18 patients between December 4 2003 and February 5 2004.
Nurse guilty of killing patients
BBC News
Tuesday, 18 April 2006
A hospital nurse has been convicted of murdering two of his patients.
Benjamin Geen, 25, was also convicted of causing grievous bodily harm to a further 15 patients at Horton General Hospital in Oxfordshire.
Oxford Crown Court heard the staff nurse from Banbury, injected patients with unauthorised lethal doses of drugs which caused them to stop breathing.
The offences took place between December 2003 and February 2004. Geen had denied all the charges.
Fifteen patients at the Horton General Hospital recovered shortly after they developed breathing difficulties.
However, the trial heard David Onley, 77, from Deddington, died on 21 January, 2004 and Anthony Bateman, 66, from Banbury, died on 6 January, 2004.
Initially, doctors could not explain the abnormally high level of respiratory arrests between December 2003 and February 2004.
Suspicion fell on Geen, a lieutenant in the Territorial Army, when it emerged that the incidents had taken place while he was on duty.
When he was subsequently arrested at the hospital on 9 February, 2004, police found a syringe filled with a potentially lethal muscle relaxant in his pocket.
Robert Robinson - one of Geen's first victims - was admitted to hospital after he drank a bottle of gin and took painkillers.
He stopped breathing when he was given an anaesthetic which he did not need, the court heard.
The 51-year-old said his life had been devastated: "I have no idea what happened when I was in hospital.
"It's hard to describe what the guy did, why he did it, I just don't know, I'm just relieved it's over."
The court heard how Geen looked "elated" as his patients went into respiratory arrest and even "boasted" to one doctor: "There is always a resuscitation when I'm on duty."
He used different methods to send his victims to the point of death including overdoses of insulin and sedatives.
Prosecutor Michael Austin Smith QC told the jury that toying with patients' lives was a price Geen was willing to pay in order to satisfy his perverse needs.
'Death's door'
When patient Timothy Stubbs was admitted with stomach pains and later transferred to the intensive care unit, the drugs midazolam, a sedative, and vecuronium, a muscle relaxant, appeared in his urine sample.
The drugs had not been prescribed by the doctors at the hospital.
Mr Smith said: "People were at death's door. Most were lucky - two were not."
Detective Superintendent Andy Taylor, who led the murder investigation, said: "Ben Geen abused this position of trust.
"We may never know what motivated him to select and poison his victims.
"It is clear that he wanted to be the centre of attention and in order to fuel this desire, brought some of his patients to the brink of death and coldly murdered two of them."