Jury in doctor's murder trial will retire today

Retired doctor Howard Martin, 71, denies murdering patients Frank Moss, 59, Stanley Weldon and Harry Gittins, both 74.

The jury of six men and six women has sat through five weeks of evidence during the hearing at Teesside Crown Court.

Trial judge Mr Justice Forbes, who started his summing up last week, finished yesterday afternoon.

He told jurors that he would give final directions today before asking them to consider its verdicts.

He thanked them for their attentiveness during the past week.

Mr Justice Forbes said: "It remains only for me to give you some very short directions, which I will do at 10.30am."

The court has heard how each of the three men had serious illnesses and was prescribed morphine by the doctor, who was practising in County Durham at the time.

Dr Martin, of Beach Road, Penmaenmawr, Gwynedd, North Wales, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder.

The jury has heard how Mr Moss, who had lung cancer, died on March 14, 2003, the day after he was visited by Dr Martin at his home in New Row, Eldon, near Bishop Auckland, County Durham.

Dementia sufferer Mr Weldon, from Kimberley Street, in nearby Coundon Grange, died four days after Mr Moss, following a visit from Dr Martin to his nursing home.

Mr Gittins, of Tattersall Close, Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, who was suffering from cancer of the oesophagus, was seen by Dr Martin in his home on January 21, last year, and died hours later.

After his family voiced concerns about his death, all three bodies were exhumed and tests carried out.

The court has been told that Dr Martin deliberately injected them with large amounts of morphine with the intention of killing them.

Dr Martin declined to give evidence during the trial, but his barrister, Anthony Arlidge QC, told the jury that the prosecution had failed to prove that the drugs killed the men, or that Dr Martin knew exactly what effect they would have on his patients.