Nurse jury continues deliberations

Kevin Cobb was arrested following a complaint from a patient

Jurors in the trial of a nurse accused of raping several drugged women, one of whom died, returns to the Old Bailey to continue their deliberations.

Kevin Cobb, 38, from Yateley, Hampshire, has denied 11 charges during the four-week trial at the Old Bailey.

The jury were sent out to consider their verdict on Tuesday but were sent home by the judge after they failed to return.

Mr Cobb denies killing nursing sister Susan Annis

The prosecution alleges Cobb used the stupefying drug Midazolam to rape or indecently assault patients at St Peter's Hospital, Chertsey, Surrey, where he worked in the casualty department.

After his arrest in January last year, following a complaint from a patient, a police inquiry into the 1996 death of nursing sister Susan Annis, 31, was reopened.

She had Midazolam in her body, but her death had never been explained.

Victor Temple QC, prosecuting, told the jury she died during a failed sex attack by Mr Cobb when the drug reacted with alcohol.

Sexual fantasies

Mr Cobb, who is married to a GP, denies giving the drug to any of the women with the intention of attacking them.

His counsel, Henry Grunwald QC, told the jury medical evidence showed the drug could have produced sexual fantasies in the women.

Mr Cobb has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of Miss Annis, a nurse at Crawley Hospital, West Sussex, in November 1996, two charges of rape at St Peter's, four charges of administering the drug with the intention to rape and alternative charges of using it with the intention to indecently assault.