Thursday 31 March 2016
Benjamin Geen is in prison for life. Convicted for two murders and over a dozen cases of grievous bodily harm, the former nurse insists he is innocent and that the evidence against him is entirely coincidental. Joel Werner asks: could anyone possibly be that unlucky?
Horton General Hospital is in Banbury, a market town in Oxfordshire, about an hour and a half north-west of London.
During the winter of 2003, something out of the ordinary happened at Horton's Accident and Emergency Department.
That winter, 18 patients admitted to A and E suddenly and unexpectedly stopped breathing.
Hospital staff might expect one, maybe two of these incidents a month, but 18 in two months? Something seemed amiss.
Hospital staff started pulling case notes and examining staff rosters, and before long their attention was drawn to a young nurse, Benjamin Geen.
Geen had been on duty each time one of these patients had collapsed. Geen was arrested as he arrived at work in February 2004.
On 10 May 2006, he was sentenced to a minimum of 38 years in prison for two counts of murder and 15 counts of grievous bodily harm.
Andy Taylor, then a detective superintendent with the Thames Valley Police and the lead investigator on Geen's case, commented during the sentencing: '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 the patients to the brink of death and coldly murdered two of them.'
At the time, Geen was 25 years old.
'Ben was a very outgoing guy,' says Geen's father, Mick. 'He loved outdoor life, he loved adventure, he liked challenges.
'He was initially a care assistant. Once he got qualified, he applied for a nurse's job in the A and E department.'
Colleagues of Ben's referred to him as a committed and enthusiastic member of staff, although there were concerns that his confidence outstripped his competence.
Leading up to the arrest, Ben told his father that A and E was a very hectic department, that he had opportunities to put himself into demanding situations, that he was learning a lot.
At this point, Ben didn't mention any difficulties to his father. It was all, as far as Mick was concerned, smooth sailing.
But on 5 February 2004, events were set in motion that would change Ben's life forever.
That day, two patients went into life-threatening respiratory arrest shortly after arriving at the emergency department. This was profoundly unusual. Suspicions were raised.
Stephen Smith, a consultant physician working in the Horton A and E that day, recalled bringing staff together to discuss these events.
'I held an impromptu meeting of minds at the bedside to explore all possibilities,' Smith said.
'There were up to 30 people present. The discussions ended up taking a wider path and a pattern began to emerge whereby similar unexplained events in the A and E were being included.
'There was some acceptance that this was not the first time over the past few weeks that we were left scratching our heads in search of an explanation for events that had occurred in the A and E department.'
The next morning— 6 February 2004—some staff members ran their suspicions up the flagpole: they reported their concerns to hospital management, including the head of clinical risk and the director of the hospital. A serious incident investigation was initiated.
The investigation reviewed patient case notes and staffing records. The team worked over the weekend and identified 18 patients who had suddenly and unexpectedly stopped breathing after visiting the department.
The group identified a common factor: Geen had been on duty at every incident.
When he next arrived at work, Geen was wearing nursing scrubs and a fleecy jacket. When the arresting officers searched him they found a syringe in his jacket pocket, which was damp and cool.
In a panic, Geen had emptied the syringe's contents.
He claimed that he had inadvertently taken the syringe home after his last shift and was returning it. Police would go on to search Geen and his then girlfriend's apartments. At both locations they found prescription-only medications that were eventually traced back to the hospital.
Geen owned up to stealing these meds for personal use. The police cautioned him for theft, but that was the least of his worries. He was taken into police custody for questioning and agreed to answer any and all questions put to him.
He admitted to seeing each of the 18 patients named in the serious incident investigation, but denied any wrongdoing. To this day, Geen denies all the charges against him.
During questioning he told police: 'I seem to have a jinx.' Eventually, he was found guilty.
Then, in 2009, Geen assembled a new legal team to appeal his conviction and sentencing.
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