THE judge who heard Oxfordshire nurse Benjamin Geen’s murder trial should have left it open to the jury to find him guilty of manslaughter, a barrister argued yesterday.

Geen, right, of Orchard Way, Banbury, was jailed for life in May 2006 for two counts of murder and 15 of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

Geen was said to have injected patients at Horton General Hospital with doses of drugs to stop them breathing. He was given a minimum term of 30 years.

The 29-year-old has always protested his innocence and is applying to have his conviction challenged as “unsafe”.

Yesterday his barrister Mark McDonald told the Court of Appeal that alternative verdicts should have been left for the jury’s consideration.

“It is for the judge to decide what are the appropriate alternatives, not for the defence counsel or prosecution counsel,” Mr McDonald said.

“What I have sought to do is say that there was evidence here, particularly in relation to the two murder counts, for manslaughter to have been put on the indictment.”

The hearing was adjourned until this morning.