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Roger
Kingsley DEAN
Classification: Mass murderer
Characteristics: Nursing home fire - To destroy evidence that he had stolen about 230 tablets
prescribed to the residents
He murdered 11 people by setting fire to their
Sydney nursing home while they slept.
Now aged-care nurse Roger Dean will spend the rest
of his life in an Australian jail.
Justice Megan Latham delivered a life sentence to
the 37-year-old for the November 2011 crime, which left the city in a
state of shock.
About 4.50am on November 18, 2011, Dean set fire to
beds in two rooms of the Quakers Hill nursing home where he was
working as the night nursing manager.
One of the rooms was empty – the other housed two
residents who were asleep in their beds.
Emergency services rushed to the home to find black
smoke billowing from the windows and residents in a state of panic.
Many were saved, but the failure of Dean to tell
firefighters that there were two fires meant that firefighters did not
became aware of the second fire until it was too late.
Five of the residents perished in the fire, while a
further six died later in hospital from the injuries they sustained.
The victims were: Dorothy Wu, 85; Alma Smith, 73;
Reginald Green, 87; Lola Bennett, 86; Ella Wood, 97; Urbana Alipio,
79; Caesar Galea, 82; Doris Becke, 96; Verna Webeck, 83; Dorothy
Sterling, 80; and Neeltje Valkay, 90.
Standing outside as the home as ambulance officers
frantically tried to save the residents, Dean did a television
interview with Channel 7.
"There was a fire and I did what I could to get the
residents out," he said.
"It's a bit overwhelming ... but we got a lot of
people out, that's the main thing."
After Dean pleaded guilty to the murders on what
was to be the first day of his murder trial in May this year, it
emerged that he had lit the fires to destroy evidence that he had
stolen some 230 painkilling tablets prescribed to the residents.
The night before the fire, Dean repeatedly went
into the room where the home kept its addictive medications and stole
237 tablets of the narcotic painkiller Endone and one capsule of the
morphine drug Kapanol. These can be bought, with a prescription, for
about A$85 (NZ$95).
He became extremely fearful when nursing home
managers discovered the drugs had been stolen, and called police.
The next night, after trying unsuccessfully to get
into the locked room where the drug registry books were kept, Dean
told two junior nurses to take an unscheduled break and then walked
into the A2 wing. Using a stolen cigarette lighter, he set fire to the
sheets of an empty bed.
Outside court, relatives of Dean's victims cheered
and embraced.
Elly Valkay, whose mother Neeltje Valkay, 90, died
in the blaze said the life sentence was "wonderful".
"I hope he suffers as much in jail as my mother
suffered in the last days of her life, which was horrendous," Valkay
told reporters.
Garry Green, whose father Reg Green was Dean's
tenth murder victim, said justice had been done.
"Hopefully (Dean) lives for a long, long time and
it's very uncomfortable," he said.
Amanda Tucker, the granddaughter of 80-year-old
victim Dorothy Sterling, said a life sentence wasn't good enough.
"My nana never made it out of that nursing home ...
every time we picture my nana we wonder whether she was in pain or if
she was scared or screaming or needing help," Tucker told reporters
outside court.
"He walked straight past her and didn't help ... so
a life sentence is never going to be good enough.
"It's never going to take away the pain of my
sister who was extremely close to my nan, who's been on an emotional
ride for years.
"It's never going to take the pain away from any of
these families."
Paul Cachia, whose mother Emmanuela Cachia died in
hospital from infections months after the fire, said it made him angry
to see Dean at the sentencing.
"He's a son of a bitch, "He's lucky I didn't get my
hands on him, put it that way," he told reporters.
Quakers Hill Nursing Home killer Roger Dean
sentenced to life without parole for murders of 11 elderly residents
The Daily Telegraph
August 02, 2013
ROGER Kingsley Dean will never be released from
jail; the families of his victims will never get over their loss.
Dorothy Sterling used to dance in the corridors of
Quakers Hill Nursing Home.
But now whenever Amanda Tucker thinks of her
beloved grandmother, she wonders if the sweet old lady died scared and
screaming for help.
Ms Sterling, 85, was one of mass murderer Roger
Dean's first victims.
"We picture our nana, we (have to) think if she was
scared or if she was screaming needing help," Amanda Tucker said.
The granddaughter of victim Dorothy Sterling said
no punishment would ever be enough for Dean, adding the fatal fire had
robbed the family of their happier memories.
"Our memories aren't of a sweet lady who passed
away of natural causes, we had to give DNA to know that that was our
grandmother. It's not a nice way to remember anything.
"It's never going to take the pain away from any of
these families."
Dean set fire to an empty bed in a room where Ms
Sterling and another immobile and helpless resident, Dorothy Wu, were
sleeping on November 18, 2011.
He then led another concerned resident away from
the blaze, lying to her that help was on the way.
"My nanna never made it out of that nursing home,''
Ms Tucker told reporters outside court after Dean was sentenced to
life imprisonment for the murders of 11 elderly nursing home
residents.
"He walked straight past her and didn't help.
"Our memories aren't of a sweet lady who passed
away from natural causes. We had to give DNA to know that was our
grandmother. He stole our memories.''
There were mixed emotions among the dozens of
relatives of Dean's victims who crammed into the Supreme Court in
Sydney on Thursday - relief and joy at the lengthy sentence, anger at
the atrocity of Dean's actions and grief for the loss of their loved
ones.
Paul Cachia, whose mother Emmanuela Cachia was
seriously injured in the blaze and later died, raised his hands in the
air and cheered outside court, saying justice had been done.
"He's a son of a b... He's lucky I didn't get my
hands on him, put it that way,'' Mr Cachia said.
But Lorraine Osland, whose mother Lola Bennett
perished in the blaze, said a life sentence wouldn't make any
difference to her family's pain.
"He got a life sentence and so did we,'' Ms Osland
said through her sobs before she was led away.
Many relatives broke down in court as Justice Megan
Latham described the pain and terror Dean's victims must have felt
before their deaths, and the guilt many relatives felt for putting
their loved ones in a home they chose "as a place of care and
safety''.
One woman fainted and had to be carried out of
court mid-way through the sentencing.
Tina Baker, whose mother Neeltje Valkay perished in
the blaze, said she still wakes up in the middle of the night,
picturing her mum's face.
Ms Valkay would have turned 92 in ten days time.
"The heartache will never go away,'' Ms Baker said.
"But justice has been served and I'm very happy
about that.''
Justice Latham paid tribute to the relatives of the
victims who had to deal with the "extremely far reaching
consequences'' of Dean's actions.
"Each relative of each murder victim expressed a
profound sense of loss,'' she said.
"Not just for the victim's life, but for the lost
connections with family, the lost opportunities for extended family
gatherings and the telling and retelling of family stories that give
everyone a sense of the past, a sense of place and a sense of self.'
Dean, 37, showed no emotion as Justice Megan Latham
said he would never be released on parole.
The announcement that the arsonist would never walk
free from prison was met with tears and applause from a packed public
gallery of the victims' relatives.
One family member yelled out "you'll get yours" as
Dean was led from the courtroom dock by sheriffs.
It had been a dramatic sentence, with one female
relative collapsing shortly after the sentencing remarks began.
Justice Latham said that there had been "planning
and premeditation" on Dean's behalf when he lit two separate fires in
a high dependency unit of the Quakers Hill Nursing Home in the early
hours of November 18, 2011.
The court deemed Dean's murders fall into the worst
case of offending.
The judge noted all of the victims had been under
Dean's care, and that he knew two of victims who were sleeping in the
room where he lit the second fire were immobile.
"The terror and fear experienced by the victims
must have been horrific," Justice Latham said.
"A worse fate is difficult to imagine."
During sentencing proceedings for Dean earlier this
year, 11 victim impact statements were read detailing the anguish the
families felt knowing they had placed their loved ones at the home.
The court heard many of them sat by hospital
bedsides in the days after the fire, watching them "succumb to burns
and respiratory failure."
Justice Latham said Dean's moral culpability for
the crime, which officially made him the state's worst ever mass
killer, wasn't diminished by a diagnosed personality disorder.
The court heard Dean, who was bullied at school and
endured a difficult relationship with his family, is "narcissistic."
The state's senior Crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi
QC called for a life sentence during a hearing in June.
He pleaded guilty to all charges against him on the
morning his Supreme Court trial has been due to start in May.
He was sentenced to a minimum of six years for the
eight counts of recklessly causing grievous bodily harm.
Outside court, family members embraced and punched
the air with their fists.
Two of the residents who died at the home in the
November 18, 2011 blaze were immobile and couldn't be moved from their
beds.
Dean lit the fires to cover up the theft of 238
painkillers from the home's treatment cupboard, later telling police
he felt "a sense of evil" come over him.
He also pleaded guilty to eight counts of
recklessly causing grievous bodily harm.
Earlier that evening police had visited the home to
investigate the missing painkillers, but had left to go to an urgent
job.
The court heard it was during those hours that Dean
lit the blaze.
Nursing home
killer Roger Dean rescued survivor and told others that 'help was on
its way'
By court reporter Jamelle Wells - Abc.net.au
June 5, 2013
A nursing home resident has told a Sydney court the
nurse who set fire to the building, killing 11 people, rescued her and
said help was on its way for others.
Helen Perry had emphysema when she lived in the
Quakers Hill Nursing Home that was destroyed by fire in November 2011.
She has given evidence on the second day of a
sentencing hearing for registered nurse Roger Dean, who has pleaded
guilty to 11 counts of murder.
Ms Perry said she was in a room with three other
women, including one with a broken hip and one who was paralysed.
She said after the fire alarm went off, Dean took
her outside and told her "help was on its way" for the others and for
her friend in another ward.
The witness said outside the home there were bodies
everywhere in beds and on the ground.
She said some beds had more than one body in them
and it was like a war zone.
Another witness, Lang Reid, a friend of Dean's from
a bible study group, said Dean seemed to be under stress after the
fire but she was not sure if he was under the influence of drugs.
Ms Reid said Dean had also once expressed concern
about people finding out he was gay.
Dean's former boyfriend previously told the court
he was taking "too many tablets" and his behaviour was odd.
Police say the 37-year-old deliberately set the
home on fire to try to cover up his theft of prescription drugs.
His sentencing hearing continues before a public
gallery packed with friends and relatives of the fire's elderly
victims.
The victims of the Sydney nursing
home fire
By Jordan Baker and Nicole Hickson -
Aww.ninemsn.com
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
They survived wars, hardship and personal
tragedies, and after lives of struggle, expected to spend their final
years in peace, surrounded by their loving families.
Instead, their lives were stolen in terrifying
circumstances. At 5am on November 18, 2011, fire broke out at the
Quakers Hill Nursing Home in Sydney.
Three people lost their lives at the scene, and
eight more died afterwards in hospital, their frail bodies unable to
withstand the trauma.
This week, aged-care nurse Roger Dean pleaded
guilty to 11 counts of murder in the NSW Supreme Court, admitting he
started the fatal inferno to cover up his theft of painkillers from
the nursing home.
Here, we discover the remarkable life stories of
the fire's victims.
It was 1944 in Friesland, Holland. Neeltje Valkay
and her father were hiding not only Jews, but also Neeltje's Hungarian
fiancé, Bela, who fled a forced work camp when he was ordered to fight
for the German army. Dutch citizens who hid fugitives put their own
lives at risk, but young Neeltje did not hesitate.
On at least one occasion, her quick thinking saved
them all. At the stamp of German boots outside, Bela and the others
scrambled to hiding places in the walls and floor, but Neeltje had a
plan; she wrapped her father in blankets and helped him into a bed in
the front room.
"When the soldiers came in to search everything, he
started coughing," Elly, Neeltje's daughter, tells The Weekly.
"The Germans hated disease, so when Mum said her
father was very sick and very contagious, they never searched the
house. She worried about them and never thought about herself, she was
a very selfless woman."
She thought of others again 67 years later, when a
fire started in her bedroom at the Quakers Hill Nursing Home.
Neeltje, 90, was rushed outside suffering from
severe smoke inhalation and as the officer went to return to the fire,
she whispered to him through her burned throat, "Be careful".
Often, in the aftermath of tragedies, we focus on
the loss of lives that are yet to be lived. After the Quakers Hill
fire, we are mourning the deaths of men and women such as Neeltje
Valkay, who lived through extraordinary times and overcame struggles
few of us can imagine.
They deserved to live out their lives in peace, but
instead they suffered indescribable terror and pain.
"What happened is cruel," says Neale Becke, whose
96-year-old mother, Doris, died in the fire.
"We knew we would eventually have a phone call
about Mum. But she didn't deserve this after the hard life she's led,
the long life — she didn't deserve this."
The war heroine
Only war and death could separate Neeltje and Bela
Valkay. They had met at a birthday party in 1940, when Bela fell in
love with the beautiful girl with luscious brown hair.
After surviving the war, they married and had three
children. "It was a big struggle," Elly says. "They were living on
coupons and it was hard in Holland at the time, which was still trying
to recover from war."
They decided to migrate to a warmer country. "I
remember coming to Fremantle for the first time and there was
sunshine. Mum's whole poise changed because it was clean and warm. She
just loved it."
The Valkays settled in Quakers Hill, then a
semi-rural suburb in outer Sydney, and built their own home — the
house in which Elly still lives. "It was a hard life, but a good one.
Mum fulfilled her life's ambition, which was to be a mother and to be
a grandmother."
When Bela passed away in 1987, Elly moved in with
her mother. Yet it was only in May 2010, after a few bad falls, that
doctors suggested Neeltje move into an aged-care facility.
She was happy at the Quakers Hill Nursing Home. It
was there, aged 90, that her nails were painted for the first time.
"She said, 'Guess what, Elly? They put nail polish
on me.' We couldn't stop laughing."
A lifetime of love
Like Neeltje and Bela, Cesare Galea and his wife,
Valentina, were immigrants, fleeing Egypt after World War II. They too
settled in Sydney, where they had two daughters, Trish and Rosana.
Theirs was also a love story. When the nursing home
fire claimed Cesare's life, the couple was approaching their 63rd
wedding anniversary. Of Cesare's 82 years on earth, he spent only 20
of them without Valentina.
"She's just devastated," says daughter Trish Rynne.
"She's not taking it very well. Mum can still look after herself and
my sister and I would take her to see Dad five times a week. Dad's
mind was okay, it was just that he couldn't walk or look after
himself. He would have lived for a while. What he had left was stolen
from him. The grandkids have taken it badly, too, because Dad was the
one who picked them up from school for us — he spoilt his grandkids.
"He should have slipped away peacefully in his
sleep. He shouldn't have to suffer and struggle like he did. He fought
a good fight, he didn't want to leave us, but in the end, it was too
much for him."
A good life, a hard life
Doris Becke was as tough as they come — "a
fighter", as her family describe her — but the fire was too much for
her, too.
She was born under a cloud of tragedy. Her mother's
best friend was murdered by a spurned suitor just months before her
birth, so she was given the second name Mercy in her memory.
She lived the hard life of a farmer's daughter,
then a farmer's wife. She and her husband, Christopher, struggled to
earn enough to support their five children.
They chanced upon the money for their first car
when Christopher's greyhound won a race at the track and it was not
until their children had grown up that they bought their first house.
They were not able to enjoy it for long, however.
In 1963, Christopher was diagnosed with cancer and, four days after
the diagnosis, he died.
His widow was distraught. "They did everything
together, everything — I know there wasn't ever an argument between
them," says Doris' son, Neale.
"They had a good life, but a hard life. They were
very much in love and very happy. Mum was a widow for 48 years. She
was asked out a few times after Dad died, but she always said, 'I've
only ever had one man and that's your father'."
Doris and Christopher leave behind an extended
family of 90, including children, grandchildren, great-grand-children
and great-great grandchildren.
Doris was spirited to the end. "I used to give Mum
a lot of cheek," says Neale, "and she always said, 'I'll fix you up',
but she never did. On the Wednesday before the fire at Quakers Hill, I
said, 'Move your big bum, Mum, so I can give you a cushion'. She said,
'I'll box your bloody ears.' She was 96 years old."
Starting over in a new land
Urbana Alipio, 79, was another who tore up the
roots of her life to settle in Australia.
She was born in the Philippines and raised three
children as a single mother in Manila after separating from her
husband. Her daughter, Judith, emigrated to Australia in 1988 and
Urbana followed her six years later.
Urbana looked after her grandchildren while her
daughter and son-in-law worked. As a result, she was so close to her
granddaughter, Abigail Valmeo, that Abigail took responsibility for
her grandmother's care as she grew older.
Yet, eight years go, Urbana was diagnosed with
dementia. "When my first daughter was already three and a half, she
started fighting with my daughter [and] she started playing with her
toys," says Abigail.
"My daughter said, 'There's something wrong with
Nana'." Abigail and her mother cared for Urbana until they could no
longer cope.
Five years ago, with much sorrow, they moved her to
Quakers Hill. "In the Asian tradition, we look after our elderly.
There are no nursing homes in the Philippines."
Nevertheless, Urbana was happy. "She'd always been
a happy person, always had a smile ... she loved to cook and dance,
and share with other people," says Abigail. "I feel sick about the way
she died, it's just unbelievable.
"We thought it was just a dream, but it's a
reality. She died from the smoke inhalation. We were not prepared for
this. We were prepared for her to die in old age, but not this way.
She should have lived happily for the remaining days in her life."
These families have more in common than grief. All
were reluctant to send their loved ones to a nursing home, but had no
choice and were pleased with their quality of life at Quakers Hill.
All are devastated by the horrific deaths their
loved ones endured. And they are appalled and bewildered that a
registered nurse who worked at the home, 35-year-old Roger Kingsley
Dean, deliberately started the fatal fire.
Of the 11 people who had died in the fire, only a
few died instantly. The others suffered days of pain, slipping in and
out of consciousness.
Relatives will never forget the fear in their eyes
as, even in hospital, they kept reliving the memory of being
surrounded by fire, but physically unable to flee.
"She kept saying how hot she was," says Elly Valkay,
who stayed by her mother's hospital bedside in her final days. "She
said, 'I'm burning, I'm burning, it's dark'."
The fire left Doris Becke unable to speak, but as
her family went to leave hospital after a visit, "her eyes flew open
and there was sheer terror on her face", her son, Neale, says.
"It was like she was in the fire and I was leaving
her. Every time she started to wake up, she was trying to remove the
tubes, she was kicking her legs in the air."
Trish also watched the terror in her father
Cesare's eyes. "He didn't really talk, he was struggling for breath so
much, but the look in his eye, you could see he was terrified," she
says. "When he was half asleep, he was yelling, 'Help, wake up!'
"Imagine what it's like to be in bed with smoke or
fire and you can't get yourself up, it's horrific. These are helpless,
elderly people who can't run, can't do anything, can't help
themselves.
"I've never seen my dad with that look in his eyes,
he was so scared."
Their only consolation is that their parents and
grandparents are finally at peace.
"Mum was a very Christian, believing person," says
Elly Valkay, "so she's safe in the arms of the Lord, holding onto
Dad's hand."
Nurse pleads guilty to 11 murders
By Lisa Davies, Stephanie Gardiner and Paul Bibby -
Sydney Morning Herald
May 27, 2013
He was the aged-care nurse entrusted to treat the
elderly and infirm, but instead Roger Dean started a fatal blaze and
murdered 11 helpless residents.
Dean, 37, today pleaded guilty to 11 counts of
murder following the fire that he stood by and watched as it engulfed
the elderly residents of the Quakers Hill Nursing Home in Sydney, on
November 18, 2011.
Three elderly residents died during the inferno and
a further eight died from injuries afterwards.
Dean, wearing a black suit, blue tie and with his
black hair worn long over his ears, looked at the ground as he quietly
said guilty to each count, as relatives of the victims of the fatal
blaze cried in the public gallery of the NSW Supreme Court, holding
hands in solidarity.
In the same quiet voice, Dean also pleaded guilty
to eight charges of recklessly causing grievous bodily harm.
He had already entered guilty pleas to two counts
of larceny over the theft of painkillers, and they will be dealt with
together with the more serious offences, Justice Megan Latham said.
Last year, Dean had offered to plead guilty to the
lesser charge of manslaughter, but it was rejected by prosecutors.
The Crown has previously alleged that Dean started
the blaze at two separate points within the building and then stood by
and watched as the blaze took hold.
The victims have been named as: Dorothy Wu, 85 and
Alma Smith, 73, who both died at the scene; 87-year-old Reginald
Green; Lola Bennett, 86; Ella Wood, 97, Urbana Alipio, 79, Caesar
Galea, 82, Doris Becke, 96; Verna Webeck, 83; Dorothy Sterling, 80,
and Neeltje Valkay, 90, who all died in various hospitals after the
fire.
The scene which confronted authorities in the
pre-dawn darkness that day 18 months ago was among the most horrifying
experiences many rescuers had experienced, they revealed in the
aftermath.
An automated fire alarm at 4.53am (local time)
summoned two fire engines with crews of four.
They were there within six minutes, but parts of
the single-storey home were already well alight.
At first crews had no idea how many people they had
to rescue, where they were or how mobile they were.
Inside the burning ward rescuers could see nothing
for the black smoke billowing from burning mattresses and furniture,
and they could hear little above their respirators, NSW Fire and
Rescue Deputy Commissioner Jim Smith told Fairfax Media at the time.
The firefighters reverted to training: Pattern
searches along the walls and then into the middle of the rooms, a plan
that led them to extinguish the twin blazes and save lives.
"When people ask me how I cope with something like
that, well from my point of view all these people are alive today
because of the fantastic job that the crews did," Smith said.
By the time the first crew had entered the
building, the second crew from Blacktown had arrived and sent a "red
message" calling for help to fight a second fire in an occupied room
in another ward.
Backup was on the way.
The fire was in a room that held four elderly
women, and it had spread to the ceiling. All four perished.
One of those was Mrs Becke, and her son Neale has
said even though his mother was one of the first rescued, she never
regained consciousness.
"Her bed was straight under the hole in the roof,"
Becke said.
"It's just my guess, and it seems right, is that
she was in bed and that the roof was burning and bits of plaster were
falling on top of her."
It took the family seven hours to track her to
Blacktown Hospital where - covered in soot and suffering superficial
burns all over her body - she was almost unrecognisable.
"I know she was an old lady at 96, but she didn't
deserve to go this way," he said.
In the early minutes the rescuers tried to push
beds out a side exit, but a handrail jammed the first bed. It had to
be pulled back into the corridor.
Those who were rescued via that exit were carried
to the door and passed to emergency workers outside. At this stage the
firefighters knew anyone in the burning ward would die unless they
were retrieved within minutes.
They probably also knew, Smith said at the time,
that some of those rescued would never recover.
By 5.20am the firefighters and the firewalls had
contained the blaze and by about 6am Smith was tackling the numbers.
Soon it was apparent two were missing. They were
found, dead, in the room where the fire began.
By about 7am the rescue was over and a second more
thorough search was conducted, before Smith handed the site to police.
Smith is sure smoke killed most of the victims, and
it made the rescue extremely difficult.
He said materials used in the furniture had been
banned in the US and Britain, and from Australian places of public
entertainment, like football stadiums, but not in hospitals or nursing
homes.
He also said having a sprinkler system would have
saved lives.
That is a key plank of the rebuilding project, with
developers revealing in February this year that the A$25 million
(NZ$30m) project would have the most advanced fire-prevention devices
in NSW.
It would also be three times bigger than the home
where the elderly residents were killed and have a memorial garden
dedicated to the fire victims.
Dean has shown little emotion during his previous
appearances in court, usually via audiovisual link.
The only time he has spoken has been when he
pleaded not guilty to murder late last year, which he did in a quiet
voice.
On a number of occasions he has elected not to
appear in court, choosing instead to stay in the cells below and
having his court papers handed to him there.
Each time Dean has appeared he has worn a large
wooden crucifix, prominently displayed over his prison greens.
Carer charged after five die and
31 are injured in raging fire at Sydney nursing home
Nurse Roger Dean, 35, charged over deaths
Flames flared in two different parts of the
building
Rescued residents in beds lined the footpath
Firefighters had to crawl through thick black smoke
By Abul Taher - DailyMail.co.uk
November 20, 2011
A nurse who claimed to have rescued patients from a
nursing home fire has been charged with murder after five people died
and 13 were critically injured.
Roger Dean is accused of four counts of murder and
is expected to be charged with a fifth.
Four people died yesterday when fire raged through
the nursing home in Sydney’s Quakers Hill suburb. The fifth, a
97-year-old woman, died in hospital earlier today.
On Friday, Dean told journalists that he had braved
dense smoke to rescue the helpless patients in his care.
‘I just quickly did what I could to get everyone
out,’ Dean said.
Det Supt Michael Willing said Dean had been helping
with inquiries before he was charged.
The dramatic breakthrough came after homicide squad
detectives and forensic investigators announced that the fire at the
nursing home in Quakers Hill had been deliberately lit.
Wearing a black sports sweater, he said nothing as
the case was heard at Sydney's Parramatta Local Court.
Dean, who had short spiky black hair with a bright
red fringe, did not apply for bail and it was formally refused. He
will appear in court again next Thursday. He is believed to have only
worked in the home for a short while.
Police said it was expected to take some time to
establish exactly what was behind the lighting of two fires that broke
out in separate wings of the Principal nursing home in the early hours
of yesterday morning.
A total of 32 people were taken to various
hospitals, with 15 admitted to intensive care units.
As the media gathered at the scene of the blaze,
where soot-blackened, confused and tearful residents lay in their beds
that had been dragged onto the pavement, Dean talked to a television
network.
He said it had been important to get the people out
of there as quickly as possible.
The fires forced 88 residents to be evacuated, many
covered in soot. There are still grave fears for almost a dozen of the
victims who are suffering from severe smoke inhalation.
Elderly and infirm who could not flee the fire were
pulled, still in their beds onto the footpath amid chaotic scenes. The
beds lined the footpath as the frightened and confused old people were
looked after by ambulance officers and police.
Firemen even hosed down some of the soot-covered
residents as they lay outside in their beds.
'The prognosis for the frail and elderly in an
intensive care situation is pretty poor,' said Dr Nick Brennan, a
geriatrician at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital.
NSW Fire Commissioner Greg Mullins described the
scene as 'chaotic' and 'tragic' as more than 100 fire crews, police
and ambulance officers arrived at the home on Hambledon Road, just
after 5am.
'This is a firefighter's worst nightmare,' Mr
Mullins said. 'Turning up to a nursing home with elderly people who
can't get themselves out of harm's way.
'Firefighters could not see their hands in front of
their faces in the thick smoke so you can imagine what it was like for
the elderly trying to escape.'
He said that firefighters had crawled into the
building through the thick smoke, reaching up to feel into beds to
establish if there was anyone there who they could rescue.
'Getting them out was like a military operation,'
he said.
The wards at the back of the home, which is
described on its website as providing a 'secure, friendly and
home-style environment.' were completely gutted.
Relatives of the residents - some of whom are
believed to be British-born - arrived at the scene, praying that their
loved ones were among those rescued.
NSW fire Superintendent Rick Parkes said three of
the victims were found in a six-room ward at the back of the building.
A fourth died later in hospital.
It was separated from the other parts of the
single-storey home when a fire door came down to stop the blaze from
spreading.
There was no sprinkler system in the nursing home
as they are not required under state laws.
Freelance cameraman Adrian Munn, choking back tears
at what he had witnessed, said: 'I saw only smoke when I arrived,
billowing everywhere. One of the police officers grabbed me and asked
me to get all the footage I could.'
'They wanted to get as much as they could for an
ongoing investigation.'
He added: 'It's quite a thing down here. It is
very, very, sad, seeing elderly people gasping for breath, moaning and
crying for help. It was a heartrending scene.'
Firefighters reported flames shooting through the
roof at one end of the building while another blaze was believed to
have started in a bedroom.
NSW assistant police commissioner Robert Redfern
earlier confirmed the fire was being treated as 'suspicious' and
revealed that homicide and arson squads had joined fire investigators
and forensic officers at the scene.'
But he stressed that 'all fires such as this' were
considered suspicious.
The Reverend Dave Hilliard, the senior state police
chaplain, praised two young police officers who were among the first
to enter the burning building and rescue residents.
'They're young and being asked to do some
extraordinary things beyond their years,' he said. 'I'm blown away by
them.'
Families of victims were being cared for in the
nearby Quakers Hill Anglican Church by counsellors and chaplains from
emergency services.
The fire is Sydney's worst since 16 residents died
in a nursing home blaze in suburban Sylvania Heights in 1981.
Roger Dean charged over nursing home fire
Six people dead in nursing home fire
Police charged nurse with murder
Nurse allegedly stayed at scene, helped
By Yoni Bashan - The Sunday Telegraph
November 20, 2011
ROGER KINGSLEY Dean seemed like a hero, telling
television cameras how he rescued patients from a burning nusing home.
But police believe he set the sheets alight, killing six people and
watched the nusing home burn.
Mr Dean, 35, of Quakers Hill, yesterday appeared
via video link before Magistrate Andrew George at Parramatta Bail
Court charged with the murders of Alma Smith, Lola Bennett and two
other unidentified victims, all of whom perished as a result of
Friday's horrific blaze.
Mr Dean had only been working at the home for a
couple of months following an alleged dispute with his previous
employer.
From a holding cell at the Penrith Correctional
Centre, Mr Dean, a registered nurse at Quakers Hill Nursing Home, was
yesterday remanded in custody to reappear in the Central Local Court
on Thursday.
The accused arsonist is expected to face further
murder charges following the death of Ella Wood, 97, who died at
Concord Repatriation General Hospital yesterday morning, and a
79-year-old woman who passed away at 9.30am today at Liverpool
Hospital.
With several people remaining in a critical
condition in intensive care units at Royal North Shore and Concord
hospitals, it is feared that the death toll will rise.
Homicide Squad boss Detective Superintendent
Michael Willing said alleged killer Mr Dean was arrested on Friday
night. He was charged early yesterday following several hours of
questioning at Quakers Hill police station.
"The inquiry is going to take some time. We have
spoken to employees at the nursing home . . . we received information
from the public," he said.
Detective Willing said that a detailed forensic
analysis of the scene would begin once the burnt-out building on
Hambledon Rd was deemed to be secure.
Police allege Mr Dean, a night-shift worker at the
facility, was one of four carers on duty at the time of the fire,
which engulfed the residence at 4.55am, trapping 88 elderly residents,
many of whom suffered from dementia.
Not long after they were evacuated from the
inferno, Mr Dean, covered in ash and soot, was hailed as a "hero" for
his part in the dramatic rescue of some of the residents.
"There was a fire and I just quickly just did what
I can (to) get everyone out," Mr Dean told television news crews.
As more than 100 firefighters battled to contain
the blaze and emergency workers laboured through the devastation, Mr
Dean allegedly remained at the scene, inside the police tape,
observing the clean-up effort from a police mobile command centre
across the road.
Authorities believe the inferno started in two
separate rooms of the nursing home, with the blazes ignited just
moments apart.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard described it as a
"very, very dark day".
"To imagine frail elderly people caught up in a
fire like that, at risk of being engulfed by the flames, is truly
horrifying." she said. "I do want to issue words of thanks, too, to
the staff of the nursing home who played a role in the rescue
efforts."
Among the amazing stories of survival was the
rescue of World War II veteran, Reg Green, who was sleeping in the
wing next to the front desk, close to where one of the fires broke
out.
He was taken to Westmead Hospital, where doctors
told his family that his chances of survival were slim due to smoke
inhalation.
"He was covered in soot," said his son Gary Green,
a 49-year-old steel worker from Glenmore Park.
His father, who suffered from dementia and was
bed-ridden, had lived at the nursing home for six years.
Mr Green had to be cut out of his clothes by
emergency workers.
Sympathy for the victims
Blinking back tears, Sue Webeck spoke with The
Sunday Telegraph after visiting her mother, Verna, yesterday.
"She isn't in a good condition at all today," Ms
Webeck said.
"She's just lying there murmuring: 'I love you'."
"I don't know if she will make it through.
"She has been a fighter but she is really sick."
Ms Webeck said her 82-year-old mother had been
bedridden for six years.
"She inhaled a lot of smoke during the fire."
Gary Barnier, chief executive of the nursing home's
owner, Domain Principal Group, offered the company's condolences to
families.
"We express our deepest sympathy to the families
who lost a loved ones," Mr Barnier said. "Our thoughts remain with the
residents still in hospital, and their families and friends.
"Our immediate focus is on ensuring the wellbeing
of our residents, and providing the care and support they, and their
families, need at this difficult time.
"All residents are being settled into temporary
accommodation, most within the local area.
"We also thank the emergency services for their
outstanding efforts.
"We are overwhelmed by the outpouring of community
support to our residents and employees."
