Stepping Hill murderer Victorino Chua got £779,000 in legal aid - more than the total compensation paid to the families of all his victims
The Ministry of Justice has revealed £370,991 was paid in solicitor fees while a further £308,445 was paid out for barrister costs plus another £90,566 in other legal expenses.
A hospital nurse who murdered two patients and poisoned 19 others received £779,000 in legal aid - more than all his victims got in compensation.
The huge cost of the defence for Filipino-born Victorino Chua - who is serving life behind bars - was today branded ‘absolutely wrong’ by the family of one of his victims.
It has emerged his victims have been paid a total of £760,475 - some £20,000 less than Chua got in legal aid.
Most of the compensation went to one patient who suffered a serious brain injury but others received payments of less than £5,000, the M.E.N. has learned.
The 50-year-old was jailed for a minimum 35 years in 2015 following a three-month trial in which he claimed he was a ‘scapegoat’.
Police believe he obtained bogus nursing qualifications in his native Manila - he may even have got someone else to sit one exam for him - before getting a job as a nurse at Stockport’s Stepping Hill Hospital.
But the the father-of-two from Heaton Norris, who was branded a ‘narcissistic psychopath’ by detectives, poisoned 21 patients in the summer of 2011 and in January 2012.
"He’s in prison now with with his Sky TV, regular meals and gym membership and my mum didn’t have any of that.
“She didn’t make anybody pay anything in her whole life. She got a death sentence basically. She was never the same after that.
"She went down hill rapidly. It makes me angry. I’m angry at the whole system more than I am of him. How could he even get a job here in the first place?”
Ministry of Justice has revealed £379,991 was paid in solicitor fees while a further £308,445 was paid out for barrister costs plus another £90,566 in other legal expenses, following a Freedom of Information Act request by the Daily Mail.
He was later convicted of 33 counts in total, including the murders of Tracey Arden, 44, and Derek Weaver, 83.
Unnoticed by unsuspecting colleagues, he injected deadly insulin into saline ampoules and bags, leaving them for unwitting medics to administer to patients and causing their blood sugar levels to collapse alarmingly.
One of his victims, Eileen Armstrong, then 83, from Hyde, was ‘never the same’ after the assault, according to her family. She died aged 88 in 2015.
Her daughter Lex Armstrong, 57, told the M.E.N: “I think it’s absolutely wrong he was paid that money, particularly because he had not even been in the country that long.
A Legal Aid Agency spokesperson said: “Anyone facing a crown court trial is eligible for legal aid, subject to a strict means test.
"Applicants who meet the relevant means thresholds may still be required to pay a significant contribution towards the costs of their defence. Depending on their means, applicants for criminal legal aid can be required to pay contributions up to the entire cost of the defence.
“The Government has taken action to reduce legal aid expenditure. It has been reduced by over 20 per cent since 2010.”
The figure paid out by the NHS in compensation was confirmed by bosses at Stepping Hill Hospital.
A spokesman for Stockport NHS Fundation Trust said: “Payments are made through NHS Resolution, (the new operating name of NHS Litigation Authority) which is the national body who manage NHS claims.
"It is our understanding that all claims have been settled, with eighteen people receiving a total payment of £760,475.
“They received payment due to the impact on their health caused by Victorino Chua’s actions. We know that this was an extremely difficult time for the victims and their families and our thoughts have always been with them. We are sorry for the distress they suffered at the time of the incidents, but are pleased that Victorino Chua was brought to justice for his criminal and extremely malicious behaviour.”
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