Details emerged on Sydney’s alleged nurse-turned-nursing home killer
A man is given oxygen by ambulance staff after a fire engulfed a nursing home for the elderly, killing at least three and seriously injuring eight, near Sydney on November 18, 2011.
Details have emerged on Sydney's alleged nurse-turned-nursing home killer.
(GlobalPost reports: Australian nurse charged with murder in fatal fire at Sydney aged care facility)
Roger Kingsley Dean, 35 — accused of murdering elderly residents of the Quakers Hill Nursing Home by setting fire to the facility — had been working there for only two months, having left his previous job after a dispute with the management, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.
Six have died so far and several more are in critical conition in hospitals around Sydney.
The paper has gone to some lengths in rounding out the picture of Dean, who on Friday — the day of the fire — painted himself as one of the heroes, pulling frail and vulnerable residents from the inferno.
According to the SMH:
Residents were shocked to learn their neighbor was the man allegedly responsible for lighting the worst nursing home fire in Sydney for 30 years.
''I heard it was someone from the local area, that it was a nurse and then they said he was 35 years old and I thought, 'Oh no. I hope it's not my neighbor,''' said Peter Arnold, 43, who lives next door to Dean. ''A lot of the information added up.''
Arnold reportedly said that Dean described having had "issues with his boss" at the other home.
"He said he had to get another job pretty quickly because he had to feed himself.''
The New South Wales government has called for a report into the screening of nursing home staff.
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