Benjamin Geen

Benjamin Geen is a British repeat murderer and former nurse who was convicted of killing two of his own patients and committing grievous bodily harm against 15 others while working at Horton General Hospital in Banbury, Oxfordshire in 2003 and 2004.

Geen, who was believed to be motivated by his 'thrill-seeking' temperament, injected a number of patients with dangerous drugs in order to cause respiratory arrest so he could enjoy the 'thrill' of resuscitating them. He was apprehended after staff at the hospital noticed that it was always when he treated patients, most of whom only had minor injuries such as dislocated shoulders, that they inexplicably had respiratory failures. Upon his arrest, a syringe full of some of the drugs he used to attack patients was found on his person. When he saw officers approaching, he discharged the syringe contents into his jacket pocket in an attempt to hide the fact he had removed potentially lethal drugs from the hospital without authority. He was found guilty at trial in 2006 and sentenced to a minimum of 30 years imprisonment. All but one of the guilty verdicts against him were by unanimous jury decision.

Geen has maintained his innocence but his multiple appeals have failed. In 2009 the Court of Appeal observed that the evidence against him was overwhelming and rejected claims that statistics could show his conviction to be unsafe, agreeing that "the danger of approaching this particular case on the basis of academic statistical opinion, however distinguished, is [that it is] divorced from the actual facts". Three applications for appeal to the Criminal Case Review Commission, the independent body which investigates alleged miscarriages of justice, have also been rejected, most recently in 2020.

Background Geen was known at Horton General Hospital as a nurse who always looked for action. This fictional character had murdered patients by secretly administering insulin and was eventually exposed as a murderer. He had previously been warned by hospital managers for turning up at the emergency department without authority, and was instructed to stop drifting there from the minor injuries unit where he was posted. These patients had all been admitted with only minor complaints such as dislocated shoulders and other mostly non-life-threatening conditions, yet suddenly found themselves fighting for their lives when they were treated by Geen. The respiratory arrests were unexplained since none of the patients' conditions should have caused a respiratory arrest to occur. Several testified that Geen looked "elated" as his patients went into respiratory arrest and even "boasted" to a doctor: "There is always a resuscitation when I'm on duty." The Thames Valley Police conducted an investigation involving up to 40 officers and independent medical experts who advised the force. The syringe needle was found to be heavily worn showing it had been used a number of times. In hospitals syringes (and needles) are single use. Both the prosecution and defence accepted that he was often around when things unexpectedly went wrong in the hospital. Another testified how she had been treating the patient earlier in the morning when he was in a good condition, but then discovered he had died shortly after she had handed over responsibility of his care to Geen. On 9 May 2006 Geen, then 25 years old, In court, Geen maintained his innocence and vowed to appeal his conviction. Mark McDonald, founder and chair of the London Innocence Project, has said that he believes the case against Geen was manufactured. Geen's family believes he is the victim of a "witch-hunt" by officials seeking to avoid the mistakes made in the case of Dr. Harold Shipman.

A first appeal failed in November 2009, when the Court of Appeal rejected his defence. and concluded that any attempt to use statistical evidence to demonstrate Geen's innocence was flawed, declaring:

Richard Thorburn, son of Geen victim John Thorburn, publicly insisted in 2014 that Geen had been rightfully convicted. Applications to the CCRC were rejected in both 2013 and 2015. Mark McDonald, a barrister representing Geen, said he would present the new statistical evidence to the CCRC and expected that they would refer the case to the Court of Appeal.

In popular culture Geen's case has been the subject of multiple television programmes: A series 1 episode of the series Nurses Who Kill aired in 2016 which focused on Geen's crimes. An episode of the CBS Reality programme The Jury Room focused on Geen's case in 2017. Twelve members of the public were asked to act as a 'jury' and review the evidence against Geen. The 'jury' unanimously concluded that Geen was guilty. A series 4 episode of Crime+ Investigation's Killer Britain with Dermot Murnaghan documented Geen's crimes. It aired on 4 April 2022.