poledriver
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Aus - Not guilty plea - nurse Roger Kingsley Dean murdered 11 to hide drug theft
ARMED with a cigarette lighter and consumed by panic as he desperately tried to cover up the theft of 238 painkiller tablets, Roger Kingsley Dean walked into bedroom 19 of the A2 wing at Quakers Hill Nursing Home.
In an instant, an unoccupied bed was alight and the fireball was spreading fast, filling the room with thick, toxic smoke.
As the fire alarm sounded, and the absence of sprinklers allowed the inferno to rage, Dean calmly walked to A1 wing and put the lighter to a sheet.
Two residents, both of whom would later be among his 11 victims, were asleep. They didn't stand a chance.
He even tried to cover his tracks by helping fire crews move other bed-ridden residents to safety.
Yesterday, the 37-year-old registered nurse was a pale figure in the Supreme Court dock as he stood to announce what the grieving families of his victims had waited more than 18 months to hear.
On what was expected to be the first day of a four-week trial, he pleaded guilty to 11 charges of murder and eight counts of recklessly causing grievous bodily harm, confirming his position as the state's worst mass murderer.
As family members of those who died in or after the fire on November 18, 2011, cried and clung to each other, Dean answered almost inaudibly "guilty" 19 times as the charges were read to him.
The fire could have been detected by the smell of smoke as it spread through the rooms, the sight of flames, the roar as it came closer and the feeling of heat.
But the common theme among Dean's victims was their vulnerability - there were those who knew what was happening but couldn't move or others, caught in confusion, who didn't know how to escape.
The court heard two women who died on that tragic morning were "immobile and incapable of moving from their beds without assistance" - a detail the man entrusted with their care knew only too well.
Prosecution documents tendered yesterday told of Dean's nervousness in the hours before he lit the fire after co-workers reported to police a massive theft of Endone oxycodone tablets and a morphine-based painkiller.
CCTV footage showed him walking in and out of the treatment room alone 36 times on the night the drugs went missing. Staff had taken the empty blister packs and sealed them so police could test them for fingerprints.
Shortly after arriving to investigate the theft, two officers were called to a violent domestic and said they would be back as soon as they could to question all staff.
A colleague noticed Dean's hands shaking as he heard the police would interview everyone over the theft.
A video recording showed him unsuccessfully trying to open an office door where the CCTV was stored.
Around that time another employee, Judith Watt, took her regular smoke break. She left her cigarettes and lighter on a vending machine.
Court documents said Dean grabbed the lighter, told two colleagues to take a break while he covered for them and moved towards an unoccupied bedroom in A2 wing.
It took only seconds for the fire to take hold. By then Dean was on the move to the A1 wing and bedroom 3, where Dorothy Sterling, 80, and Dorothy Wu, 85, were asleep.
He set fire to the sheet of an empty bed. Within minutes he was heard ushering residents through the home, telling them: "We've got to get out."
As frantic attempts were made to save lives outside the home, Dean managed to get back inside the building and take two drug register books which detailed the contents of the treatment room.
Three residents, Ms Sterling, Ms Wu and Alma Smith, 73, died that morning. A further eight died of burns and smoke inhalation in hospital.
Facing life behind bars, with his sentence to be determined later this year, it is now Dean who cannot escape.
After initially denying involvement, Dean told police he had lit the fire but "thought it would be containable and not get so big."
Families relieved by killer's guilty plea -
Continued -
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/national-new...ft/story-fnii5s3x-1226651686995#ixzz2UWGkM4FV
ARMED with a cigarette lighter and consumed by panic as he desperately tried to cover up the theft of 238 painkiller tablets, Roger Kingsley Dean walked into bedroom 19 of the A2 wing at Quakers Hill Nursing Home.
In an instant, an unoccupied bed was alight and the fireball was spreading fast, filling the room with thick, toxic smoke.
As the fire alarm sounded, and the absence of sprinklers allowed the inferno to rage, Dean calmly walked to A1 wing and put the lighter to a sheet.
Two residents, both of whom would later be among his 11 victims, were asleep. They didn't stand a chance.
He even tried to cover his tracks by helping fire crews move other bed-ridden residents to safety.
Yesterday, the 37-year-old registered nurse was a pale figure in the Supreme Court dock as he stood to announce what the grieving families of his victims had waited more than 18 months to hear.
On what was expected to be the first day of a four-week trial, he pleaded guilty to 11 charges of murder and eight counts of recklessly causing grievous bodily harm, confirming his position as the state's worst mass murderer.
As family members of those who died in or after the fire on November 18, 2011, cried and clung to each other, Dean answered almost inaudibly "guilty" 19 times as the charges were read to him.
The fire could have been detected by the smell of smoke as it spread through the rooms, the sight of flames, the roar as it came closer and the feeling of heat.
But the common theme among Dean's victims was their vulnerability - there were those who knew what was happening but couldn't move or others, caught in confusion, who didn't know how to escape.
The court heard two women who died on that tragic morning were "immobile and incapable of moving from their beds without assistance" - a detail the man entrusted with their care knew only too well.
Prosecution documents tendered yesterday told of Dean's nervousness in the hours before he lit the fire after co-workers reported to police a massive theft of Endone oxycodone tablets and a morphine-based painkiller.
CCTV footage showed him walking in and out of the treatment room alone 36 times on the night the drugs went missing. Staff had taken the empty blister packs and sealed them so police could test them for fingerprints.
Shortly after arriving to investigate the theft, two officers were called to a violent domestic and said they would be back as soon as they could to question all staff.
A colleague noticed Dean's hands shaking as he heard the police would interview everyone over the theft.
A video recording showed him unsuccessfully trying to open an office door where the CCTV was stored.
Around that time another employee, Judith Watt, took her regular smoke break. She left her cigarettes and lighter on a vending machine.
Court documents said Dean grabbed the lighter, told two colleagues to take a break while he covered for them and moved towards an unoccupied bedroom in A2 wing.
It took only seconds for the fire to take hold. By then Dean was on the move to the A1 wing and bedroom 3, where Dorothy Sterling, 80, and Dorothy Wu, 85, were asleep.
He set fire to the sheet of an empty bed. Within minutes he was heard ushering residents through the home, telling them: "We've got to get out."
As frantic attempts were made to save lives outside the home, Dean managed to get back inside the building and take two drug register books which detailed the contents of the treatment room.
Three residents, Ms Sterling, Ms Wu and Alma Smith, 73, died that morning. A further eight died of burns and smoke inhalation in hospital.
Facing life behind bars, with his sentence to be determined later this year, it is now Dean who cannot escape.
After initially denying involvement, Dean told police he had lit the fire but "thought it would be containable and not get so big."
Families relieved by killer's guilty plea -
Continued -
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/national-new...ft/story-fnii5s3x-1226651686995#ixzz2UWGkM4FV
