A family doctor deliberately ended the lives of three seriously but not terminally ill patients with massive doses of morphine, a court heard yesterday, because he had made up his mind that "their time had come to die".
Dr Howard Martin, 71, a long-standing GP in Co Durham, made no secret of his actions to relatives and nursing home staff, but embroidered his diagnoses with lies, Teesside crown court jury was told.
He invented a non-existent letter of support from a consultant and claimed that he had data on a laptop computer, which - as was common knowledge among staff at his surgery - he did not know how to use.
Robert Smith QC, prosecuting on three counts of murder, said Dr Martin would claim that he had been "simply easing suffering" but that was not the case. "The prosecution say that Dr Martin deliberately intended to kill or cause serious harm," he said.
"We are not able to explain the motive as to why Dr Martin chose to terminate the lives of these three patients. But it was not for him to determine when and where they should die."
The court heard that the first of the victims was Frank Moss, 59, who was being treated for lung cancer when Dr Martin visited him at home in March 2003. Although Mr Moss had been looking forward to a new adjustable bed and had ordered a Zimmer frame from the district nurse, Dr Martin told his daughter Alison that he would not survive the night.
"Alison Moss was shocked by the doctor's comments as her father seemed well enough and did not appear to her to be in any pain," said Mr Smith. But the GP had administered a fatal total of three 60mg doses of morphine over 10 hours and certified Mr Moss's death the following morning with a note saying: "Patient died peacefully at 04.30am. RIP".
Dr Martin, now of Penmaenmawr, Gwynedd, is also charged with murdering Stanley Weldon, 74, a victim of senile dementia who had become agitated at the nursing home where he was living, also in March 2003. The doctor told Mr Weldon's wife, Elizabeth, that her husband was very ill and he had given him something "to help him on his way".
Medical reports read to the jury of six men and six women suggested that the morphine dosage was between six and 12 times what would have been needed to settle the pensioner down.
The final victim, the court heard, was cancer sufferer Harry Gittins, 74, who died six days after an operation on his oesophagus in January 2004. Dr Martin told Mr Gittins' daughter that her father was "riddled with cancer" but that the evidence was on his laptop which he had left at his surgery in Newton Aycliffe.
The family became suspicious and contacted police, who later exhumed the bodies of the three men and found evidence of the lethal doses of opiate.The GP was arrested but only answered routine questions and gave prepared statements on each case.
"Dr Martin deliberately administered drugs in far greater doses than were remotely necessary,' said Mr Smith. "He had decided that the time had come for these patients to die. Rather than merely easing their suffering, he went one step further, he decided to kill them."
The trial continues today.
