THE judge has begun his summing up in the trial of a nurse accused of murdering two patients and causing grievous bodily harm to 16 others.

Benjamin Geen, 25, is accused of murdering Anthony Bateman, 65, and David Onley, 75, while working at Banbury's Horton Hospital between December 2003 and February 2004.

Yesterday defence barrister Muktar Hussain told jurors at Oxford Crown Court not to be stirred by emotional and emotive language, but to judge the case on the evidence.

Geen is accused of injecting patients with a muscle relaxant and on one occasion turning up a patient's oxygen level which caused each patient to stop breathing.

Mr Hussain said: "When you hear things like, Was there a maniac at the Horton Hospital?', they make wonderful newspaper headlines."

But he added that such phrases may have little to do with the case.

He told the jury to make sure the evidence fitted the circumstances.

He also refuted the prosecution's claims that there was a pattern to Geen's actions.

He said the victims were all of different ages, different genders and did not all suffer respiratory arrests in the same manner.

The trial continues.