Rebecca Leighton, who was released without charge over patients’ deaths at Stepping Hill hospital, has criticised the media for the way she was portrayed and says her life has been turned upside down.
Ms Leighton told ITV1’s This Morning that she is still scared to go outside following her “horrendous” ordeal, when she was held in custody for six weeks on charges of theft and criminal damage with intent to endanger life.
“It’s hard to even say about having a normal life because even now my life is not normal.
“I am living at my parents’, I am not living where I was living. I’m not working. I can’t go outside my house without people taking pictures of me.
“I can’t walk down the street on my own because I’m a bit scared. Someone has always got to be with me all the time. It’s far from normal.”
Ms Leighton has been told she can return to nursing but remains suspended from work while an internal inquiry is carried out. Police are still investigating the deaths of three people at Stepping Hill hospital.
I can’t walk down the street on my own because I’m a bit scared. It’s far from normal. Rebecca Leighton
The 27-year-old accused the media of endangering her life by turning the public against her with labels like the “angel of death” and the “saline serial killer”.
She was refused bail due to fears over her own safety before being released without charge on 2 September.
“Because of how the media have portrayed me to be, they could not be any more wrong, people have formed an opinion about me, so I believe it was for that reason,” she said.
Maintaining that nursing was her passion, she said the media had used a selection of her Facebook photos to portray her as someone she was not.
“Nursing is all I’ve ever done, I’m so passionate about my job and looking after patients, that’s what I do. That’s what I have worked so hard for.
“I find it hard to look any further into the future than right here and now, but I’d love to have my life back, exactly how it was before.
“All this attention has been totally out of my control and I have been left now to try and sort everything out myself.”
Ms Leighton said she was in “complete shock” at her arrest, but urged police to keep looking for the person involved.
“I pleaded with the police, every day, all the time. Just don’t stop looking. Don’t stop with me because if you do then surely the person that has done these horrific things is still going to be out there.
“It worried me so much that the patients, everybody, were still going to be affected by it all.”