Beverley Allitt: Killer seeks transfer to mainstream prison

Beverley Allitt's trial heard she was suffering from the rare Munchausen syndrome

A nurse who killed babies in her care has appeared before a mental health assessment panel as she seeks a transfer to a mainstream prison.

Beverley Allitt was working at Grantham hospital in Lincolnshire when she killed four children and tried to murder another nine in 1991.

The panel will decide if she can be transferred from Rampton secure hospital in Nottinghamshire.

If allowed, she could become eligible to apply for parole.

It has not been confirmed when the panel's decision will be made or published.

Allitt worked for slightly more than eight weeks on the paediatric ward but in that time attacked children by injecting them with drugs or air.

Allitt was branded the "Angel of Death" following her conviction

She was caught after an investigation was launched into the number of medical emergencies among babies on the ward.

Her trial heard she was suffering from the rare Munchausen syndrome, in which people harm themselves or others for attention.

It was also told of her "intensely disturbed behaviour", including self-harming since childhood.

High Court judge Mr Justice Burnton said he was satisfied that she was suffering from "an abnormality of mind" when she committed the offences.

He said her crimes had condemned the families of the dead and injured children to "a life sentence, from which there is no remission, no release on licence".

She was jailed in 1993 for life with a minimum term of 30 years.