Filipino nurse Victorino Chua launches appeal against Stepping Hill murder sentence

Filipino nurse Victorino Chua, who was jailed for life in May after being found guilty of murdering two patients and poisoning 19 others, has lodged an appeal against the sentence, his lawyers have said.

Chua was jailed for a minimum of 35 years for contaminating drips with insulin and placing them in storage where they would later be administered to patients.

The 49-year-old was convicted of killing Tracy Arden and Alfred Derek Weaver at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport and was also found to have caused grievous bodily harm to another who suffered a brain injury as a result of being poisoned.

Today the Filipino nurse's solicitor Jeremy Moore confirmed an appeal against the convictions had been lodged on the grounds that the trial judge made incorrect rulings, the Manchester Evening News reported.

Moore said his client, an inmate at Strangeways prison in Manchester, was "bearing up" and maintained he is an innocent man.

"He's obviously under incredible strain but feeling positive about the forthcoming appeal and still maintaining his innocence," he said.

Following his conviction Chua, who was described by police as "narcissistic and psychopathic", urged anyone with information about what he called the "true perpetrator" of the Stepping Hill murders to make themselves known.

"After a four month trial the jury, after considering the evidence which was entirely circumstantial for a period of over three weeks, reached verdicts which, while I respect the jury's integrity and good faith, are not in accordance with the truth of the matter.

"I am completely innocent of any wrong doing," he argued.