A 47-year-old registered nurse Victorino CHUA has been charged with murdering three hospital patients.  He also faces 31 charges involving 25 other patients at the Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom.

They include eight attempted poisonings, one of grievous bodily harm and 22 of attempted grievous bodily harm (GBH).  CHUA is due to appear at Manchester magistrates’ court tomorrow morning. 

The medic had spent two years and three months on bail after first being quizzed by detectives in January 2012.  the probe followed the death of patients whose drips were allegedly contaminated in the summer of 2011.

CHUA was originally held on suspicion of killing three patients – Tracey ARDEN, 44, Arnold LANCASTER, 71, and Derek WEAVER, 83 – by poisoning.

The latest charges came after he was dramatically re-arrested in a dawn raid on Thursday, 27 March 2014.

CHUA, a registered nurse since 2003, was pictured wearing a camouflage hooded top and black hat as he was led from his home in Heaton Chapel and bundled into the back of a police van.  Several officers were involved in the arrest of CHUA, who had been due to answer police bail on Monday.

In a statement, a Greater Manchester Police spokesman said: “A man has been arrested in connection with the investigation into the deliberate contamination of products and tampering of medical records at Stepping Hill Hospital.”

Detectives believe a worker at the hospital injected insulin into saline solution, poisoning 22 patients in June and July 2011.

Former journalist, Bill DICKSON, 82, Linda McDONAGH, 60, John “Jack” BEELEY, 73, Beryl HOPE, 70, and Mary CARTWRIGHT, 89, died several months after it was suspected they were poisoned.

They are among the number of cases being treated as grievous bodily harm.

Police are understood to have obtained new evidence after an investigation which lasted almost three years.

CHUA was barred from approaching any witnesses or attending any medical sites during the probe.

Before his arrest, another Stepping Hill nurse, Rebecca LEIGHTON, spent six months in prison accused of poisoning patients.

All criminal charges against her were later dropped but she was sacked after admitting stealing drugs.  She was suspended for three months by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.