A PROFESSOR told a murder jury yesterday he would not have expected a patient to survive after being given a high dose of morphine by his doctor.

Professor Robert Forrest, an expert in toxicology, said 60mg injections of the drug given to cancer sufferer Frank Moss were likely to have led to his death.

Giving evidence at Teesside Crown Court, the professor, of the University of Sheffield, said: "In terms of the likely impact on him, I would expect the impact would be death.

"Any competent medical practitioner would expect death to be the result."

Dr Howard Martin, who worked as a GP for the Jubilee Medical Group, in County Durham, is accused of murdering 59-year-old Mr Moss, Stanley Weldon, 74, of Coundon Grange, and Harry Gittins, 74, of Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.

The jury had previously been told that Dr Martin had admitted giving Mr Moss two injections of morphine when he visited his home in Eldon, near Bishop Auckland, on March 13, 2003.

He told police he had given the lung cancer sufferer 60mg of morphine to alleviate pain and distress, followed by another injection of the drug later in the evening.

Prof Forrest said the first dose would have rendered Mr Moss unconscious.

He said it was difficult to justify why Dr Martin would give his patient a further dose of morphine, and said the dosage was totally inappropriate.

Prof Forrest said: "I would expect at the time Mr Moss received 60mg of morphine that this would have been likely to have led to his death.

"I would not have expected him to survive."

He said doctors may give patients modest doses of five to 10mg of morphine to dying patients in distress, but he said 60mg was not a modest dose.

Prof Forrest said he could think of no logical medical explanation why Dr Martin would go to Mr Moss's house with a prepared syringe, and said it was "fanciful" to suggest Mr Moss had died of lung cancer that night, but said he could not rule it out as a possibility.

The trial continues.