Somerset nurse on trial for murder

28 January 2010, 11:23 | Updated: 2 February 2010, 17:06

The trial of a registered nurse from Somerset accused of murdering two elderly residents at a care home is underway.

43 year old Rachel Baker, from Boundary Way, Glastonbury, who ran Parkfields Residential Care Home in Butleigh, near Glastonbury, is accused of murdering Clara ``Lucy'' Cox, 97, and Mary``Francis'' Hay, 85, between 2006 and 2007.

Baker's admitted 8 counts of possession of Class A and C drugs and 1 charge of perverting the course of justice but has denied the two murder charges.

Prosecutor David Fisher told the jury at Bristol Crown Court that Mrs Baker murdered two of the residents by giving them an overdose of prescription drugs.  That in the autumn of 2005 Mrs Baker began to abuse prescription drugs and by the end of 2006 she was addicted to certain prescribed drugs, including diamorphine, pethidine and Diazepam.

Mr Fisher told the court: "Many of those drugs were prescribed lawfully to residents of the care home, drugs which Rachel Baker acquired unlawfully for her own use.

The trial is expected to last until March.