Nurse denies manslaughter and rape charges

A nurse accused of drugging four women for sex was "nonchalant" as one of his alleged victims lay dying with two syringes next to her body, a court heard.

American dermatologist Dr Mary Allen was the first on the scene after the nurse, Kevin Cobb, 38, raised the alarm.

Junior ward sister Susan Annis, 31, from Haywards Heath, had collapsed on the floor of her room at London's Royal Brompton Hospital, where she and Cobb were studying.

Dr Allen told the Old Bailey: "He said, 'Can you give me a hand, can you help me?' in a nonchalant sort of way.

"When I walked into the room I was shocked to see a woman lying on the floor. She was blue and she appeared to be dead.

"I was very shocked and startled and panicked. I quickly called out to my friends to come into the room."

As Cobb started giving giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, Dr Allen noticed the syringes.

"There were a couple. I think they were lying on the floor near her body but that is all I can honestly say. They were small syringes - for injections," she added.

Paramedics arrived and Dr Allen asked Cobb about Miss Annis' medical history, thinking the syringes may have been for diabetes or seizures.

"He was not aware of these problems. He did seem to know the answer as I recall," said Dr Allen.

Cobb then told her how he had spent the evening with Miss Annis, who had drank two-and-a-half cans of strong cider in his room.

The nurse said Miss Annis went back to her quarters but he became worried about her and found her comatose when he went to check.

Dr Allen said: "He didn't seem emotional at all. We attributed it to shock. My friends and I thought: 'Why were there syringes in the room?' That seemed unusual. I remember my friend Cindy said to me it was very bizarre those syringes were there."

Dr Allen was six months away from graduating when she was sent to study at the Royal Brompton in 1996.

She had a room in the nurses' quarters near to Cobb's and was on the telephone to her future husband when he asked her for help.

Dr Allen said: "I expected it to be a minor request, a hand for a minor task."

She believed Miss Annis was dead when she got into the room but her chest wall did move during the resuscitation attempts.

The doctor, who flew in from Durham, North Carolina, did not make a statement to police at the time and was tracked down by the FBI.

Cobb is alleged to have used the powerful sedative Midazolam on Miss Annis and in rape attacks on three patients at his hospital, St Peter's in Chertsey.

The prosecution claim Cobb spiked Miss Annis' cider with the sedative.But pathologist Dr Vesna Djurovic has told the court a fine needle injection would not necessarily have been detected in a post mortem examination.

Cobb, of Michaelmas Close, Yately, Hants, denies the manslaughter of Miss Annis, who lived in Colwell Road and worked at Crawley Hospital.

He further denies two charges of rape, four of administering a stupefying substance with intent to rape, and four of administering a stupefying substance with intent to indecently assault.

The trial continues.

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