Murder trial delayed by illness
Rachel Baker, 44, the former manager of the Parkfields care home in Butleigh, is alleged to have murdered Francis Hay, 85, and Lucy Cox, 97, by administering a lethal overdose of painkillers in 2006 and 2007.
She has pleaded guilty to eight counts of possession of Class A and C drugs, and admitted a single county of perverting the course of justice.
The case has already taken three years to come before crown court, and on Thursday the trial was adjourned.
A spokesman for Bristol Crown Court said Mrs Baker had fallen ill on Friday, but the court was back in session on Wednesday.
Last week, the court heard how Mrs Baker kept the residents' controlled medication on her person in an ice cream tub.
She stole drugs intended for frail pensioners at Parkfields Residential Care Home in Butleigh, Somerset, which she ran with husband Leigh.
Baker, who denies two counts of murder, became a registered nurse in November 1987 and began working with Leigh's parents at the residential care home in 1988.
But she became hooked on a cocktail of painkillers – including the heroin derivative diamorphine, pethidine and diazepam – after suffering migraines in 1999.
The couple took over the day-to-day running of the care home from Mr Baker's parents in 2000, caring for 16 patients.
Baker was once legally prescribed painkillers herself in April 2006, when she was also diagnosed with depression. But her addiction worsened and she turned to patients' prescriptions to feed her habit.
Mrs Baker was responsible for administering medication while Mr Baker helped with day-to-day responsibilities.
She stole more than 5,000 doses of medication intended for frail elderly patients.
As the Central Somerset Gazette went to press, a spokesman for the court said the trial was about to recommence.
It is expected to last around two months.
For more, see page 9.
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