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After the sudden deaths of two patients at a hospital in New Jersey, nobody could have guessed the crimes that were about to be uncovered.

And a key player in the investigation was Amy Loughren – the subject of the new Netflix film The Good Nurse – who would play a vital role in revealing the shocking truth about Charles Cullen, a colleague she called a friend.

Born in New Jersey in 1960, Cullen was the youngest of eight siblings.

His father was a bus driver who died before Cullen turned a year old, and his mother, a homemaker, died in a car accident when he was a teenager.

His first murders

After what has widely been reported as a miserable childhood, a brief stint in the Navy and numerous alleged suicide attempts, Cullen eventually became a nurse, graduating from nursing school in 1987 before getting married.

Cullen and his wife had two daughters before getting a divorce in 1993.

During that time, Cullen is believed to have killed his first victims.

Cullen would go on to work in several hospitals and nursing homes. Some jobs he quit after being investigated over allegations of misconduct – on one occasion because an elderly woman complained he kept coming into her room and giving her injections when he wasn’t the nurse assigned to her.

He was fired from one hospital for hiding heart medicine in a bin meant for disposing of needles.

He would bounce from different medical centres in New Jersey, and even worked for a time in Pennsylvania after getting a licence to practice there.

His weapon of choice: Digoxin

Between 1998 and 2002, he did some agency work and had some full-time jobs.

In this time, he is believed to have killed even more people.

His weapon of choice was a drug called digoxin – a medication routinely used to treat people with an irregular heartbeat or heart failure – but is lethal in large doses.

Cullen would also inject patients’ saline pouches with lethal doses of insulin and other drugs.

His crimes were committed over a period of 16 years – but it was in 2003 while he was working at Somerset Medical Centre in Somerville, New Jersey, that it would all finally unravel.

Florian Gall was a reverend being treated at the hospital.

After showing signs of improvement during his stay, Gall had a massive heart attack and died.

It was later determined that he had a lethal level of digoxin, and his death was caused by an unauthorised dose of the drug.

Cullen was finally arrested in December in 2003.

He told investigators that he administered the drug overdoses to put “very sick” patients out of their misery.

He admitted to 30-40 murders, but the true number is thought to be closer to 400 – which would make him the most prolific serial killer in US history.

The friendship that would ultimately bring him down

While working at what would become his last hospital, Cullen met a nurse – Loughren – and they formed a friendship.

She saw in him a kind man, someone she wanted to spend time with and be friends with.

But it was Loughren – described as “courageous” and “incredible” – who helped detectives build the case against him.

The single mother and cardiomyopathy sufferer was coping with night shifts in a New Jersey hospital in order to qualify for health insurance when the apparently highly-qualified Cullen was hired to help manage the workload.

The two quickly formed a close bond – Cullen even helping Loughren to cover up her illness and care for her two young daughters.

But following the sudden death of two patients, detectives became suspicious of Cullen.

When they gave her documents that showed the drugs Cullen was ordering, she “knew he was murdering people”, she previously said.

“There were so many withdrawals of lethal medications” that you wouldn’t order unless you wanted to kill someone,” she had told CBS at the time.

She began collecting evidence at the hospital and wore a wire at a meeting with him. She also admits to manipulating him to try to get him to confess.

In The Good Nurse, Loughren is played by Jessica Chastain, while Eddie Redmayne picks up the role of Cullen.

Read more:
Jessica Chastain on playing the nurse who helped catch her serial killer colleague

The former nurse has now spoken to Sky News.

She says she was “proud” to see the film come together, although it acted as a “trigger” for so much of the time she spent with Cullen.

Loughren said: “I was pretty terrified every day and I held that together.

“The things that they don’t show in the film was that I was actually much more sick – and I was truly terrified of leaving my two girls behind.

“Watching Jessica play me – I allowed myself to feel proud of myself.”

‘My guilt about missing my friendship – because he’s a monster’

“It was triggering watching Charlie (played by Redmayne) because Eddie truly embodies who my friend Charlie was.

“The way that he moves, the way that he speaks, the interactions that we have, are so real. That part of it was extremely triggering.

“And allowing myself to understand that I missed him for a while – and my guilt about actually missing my friendship, because he’s a monster.

“But I didn’t know the murderer. I only met the murderer a couple of times and he played this part of my friend.

“I missed that friendship, so it was very triggering. And then it was like, ‘let’s get him’.”

Amy Loughren, left, and Jessica Chastain attend the premiere of "The Good Nurse" at the Princess of Wales Theatre during the Toronto International Film Festival, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022, in Toronto. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
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Amy Loughren, left, and Jessica Chastain at the Toronto International Film Festival. Pic: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

Making a film ‘was laughable at first’

Film producers found the relationship between the single mother and Cullen as the most “compelling” part of the narrative.

Loughren, who retired 18 months ago, added: “It was laughable at first because I’m thinking how would anybody really want to see a film? And truly, (the investigation) was such a small part.

“Darren Aronofsky was the one who initially picked it up and decided to make it into a movie.

“He said the most compelling part of Charles Graeber’s absolutely brilliant book was the friendship and that it was compelling to him.

“Something that I had actually been embarrassed about and felt so much guilt about was all of a sudden going to be up on a big screen.

“I didn’t really know how to feel. I didn’t want anyone to know who I was 20 years ago.

The Good Nurse (2022). L to R: Eddie Redmayne as Charlie Cullen and Jessica Chastain as Amy Loughren. Cr. JoJo Whilden / Netflix
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Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Chastain in The Good Nurse. Pic: JoJo Whilden/Netflix

“I didn’t want anyone to be judging me from the 20 years ago that I was.

“It was scary. I didn’t want my name on it at first. Then I realised it’s going to happen with or without me – I might as well give myself a voice.”

Chastain, who met Loughren for the first time during a Zoom call, highlighted learning how complicated life was for the former nurse.

‘What she stumbles into is quite shocking’

Chastain told Sky News: “To be able to talk to Amy and understand what her life was like and what she had at stake, it really helped me to realise how courageous she was and what an incredible person she is.

“All the things that she was juggling at the time. Being a single mother, two girls, not having health insurance, working on a night shift so you’re not really getting proper sleep.

“And also, at the same time, needing a heart transplant. That’s what we walk in with at the beginning of this film.

“What she then stumbles into is quite shocking.”

Director Tobias Lindholm said what he “loved” about the story was how it focused on “a hardworking woman whose superpower was her humanity”.

He added: “I remember coming across the script a few years ago and it mirrored Charles Graeber’s book a bit more closely in that it focused on the killer, but it was Amy Loughren’s role in this story that I found to be most interesting.”

The Good Nurse is in UK cinemas and on Netflix.

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Stalker who believed Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas was his aunt avoids jail

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Stalker who believed Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas was his aunt avoids jail

A man who stalked Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas for six years has avoided jail.

Kyle Shaw, 37, got a 20-month suspended sentence and a lifetime restraining order on contacting Ballas, her mother, niece, and former partner.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that he thought Ballas was his aunt and “began a persistent campaign of contact”.

“He believed, and it’s evident from what he was told by his mother, that her late brother was his father,” said prosecutor Nicola Daley.

The court heard there was no evidence he was wrong, and “limited evidence” he was correct.

Ms Daley said Shaw’s messages had accused Ballas of being to blame for the death of her brother, who took his own life in 2003 aged 44.

He also set up social media accounts in his name.

Shaw had pleaded guilty to stalking the former dancer between August 2017 and November 2023 at a hearing in February.

Incidents included following Ballas’s 86-year-old mother, Audrey Rich, while she was shopping and telling her she was his grandmother.

The court heard in messages to Mrs Rich, Shaw had asked: “Where’s my dad?”

Ballas was so worried for her mother’s safety that she moved her from Merseyside to London.

Shaw outside court on the day of his sentencing. Pic: PA
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Kyle Shaw outside court on the day of his sentencing. Pic: PA

In October 2020, Ballas called police after Shaw messaged her and said: “Do you want me to kill myself, Shirley?”

Posts on X included one alongside an image of her home address that warned: “You ruined my life, I’ll ruin yours and everyone’s around you.”

Another referenced a book signing and said: “I can’t wait to meet you for the first time Aunty Shirley. Hopefully I can get an autograph.”

The court was told Ballas’s niece Mary Assall, former partner Daniel Taylor and colleagues from Strictly Come Dancing and ITV’s Loose Women were also sent messages.

‘I know where you live’

On one occasion in late 2023, Shaw called Mr Taylor and told him he knew where the couple lived and described Ballas’s movements.

The court heard the 64-year-old TV star become wary of socialising and stopped using public transport.

Prosecutor Ms Daley said: “She described having sleepless nights worrying about herself and her family’s safety and being particularly distressed when suggestions were made to her that she and her mother were responsible for her brother taking his own life.”

Man accused of stalking Shirley Ballas
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Ballas has been head judge on Strictly Come Dancing since 2017. Pic: PA

Shaw cried and wiped away tears as he was sentenced on Tuesday.

The judge said the stalking stemmed from his mother telling him Ballas’s brother, David Rich, was his biological father.

“I’m satisfied that your motive for this offending was a desire to seek contact with people you genuinely believed were your family,” he said.

“Whether in fact there’s any truth in that belief is difficult, if not impossible, to determine.”

Kyle Shaw leaves Liverpool Crown Court, where he is charged with stalking Strictly judge Shirley Ballas.
Pic: PA
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Shaw pictured at court in February. Pic: PA

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Defence lawyer John Weate said Shaw had been told the story by his mother “in his mid to late teens” and had suffered “complex mental health issues” since he was a child.

He added: “He now accepts that Miss Ballas and her family don’t wish to have any contact with him and, importantly, he volunteered the information that he has no intention of contacting them again.”

Shaw, of Whetstone Lane in Birkenhead, also admitted possessing cannabis and was ordered to undertake a rehab programme.

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Gary Glitter made bankrupt after failing to pay £500k compensation to victim

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Gary Glitter made bankrupt after failing to pay £500k compensation to victim

Gary Glitter has been made bankrupt after failing to pay more than £500,000 in damages to a woman he abused when she was 12 years old.

She sued the disgraced singer, whose real name is Paul Gadd, after he was found guilty of attacking her and two other schoolgirls between 1975 and 1980.

Glitter, 80, was jailed for 16 years in 2015 and released in 2023 but was recalled to prison less than six weeks later after breaching his parole conditions.

A judge awarded the woman £508,800, including £381,000 in lost earnings and £7,800 for future therapy and treatment, saying she was subjected to abuse “of the most serious kind”.

The court heard she had not worked for decades due to the trauma of being repeatedly raped and “humiliated” by the singer.

Gary Glitter has lost a parole board bid to be freed from jail.
Pic:Met Police/PA
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Glitter was jailed for 16 years in 2015. Pic: Met Police/PA

Glitter was made bankrupt last month at the County Court at Torquay and Newton Abbot, in Devon – the county where he is reportedly serving his sentence in Channings Wood prison, in Newton Abbot.

Richard Scorer, head of abuse law at Slater and Gordon, the law firm representing the woman, said: “We confirm that Gadd has been made bankrupt following our client’s application.

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“As he has done throughout, Gadd has refused to cooperate with the process and continues to treat his victims with contempt.

“We hope and trust that the parole board will take his behaviour into account in any future parole applications, as it clearly demonstrates that he has never changed, shows no remorse and remains a serious risk to the public.”

Glitter was first jailed for four months in 1999 after he admitted possessing around 4,000 indecent images of children.

He was expelled from Cambodia in 2002, and in March 2006 was convicted of sexually abusing two girls, aged 10 and 11, in Vietnam where he spent two-and-a-half years in prison.

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His sentence for the 2016 convictions expires in February 2031.

Glitter was automatically released from HMP The Verne, a low-security prison in Portland, Dorset, in February 2023 after serving half of his fixed-term determinate sentence.

But he was back behind bars weeks later after reportedly trying to access the dark web and images of children.

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Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan revealed in line-up for Sam Mendes’ four Beatles films

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Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan revealed in line-up for Sam Mendes' four Beatles films

Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan will play Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr in the upcoming Beatles films – with a Stranger Things star also portraying one of the Fab Four.

The two Irish actors will be joined by London-born performers Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison.

The cast for the Sam Mendes project was revealed at the CinemaCon event in Las Vegas, with all four appearing on stage and taking a bow together in Beatles style.

Paul Mescal, Joseph Quinn, Barry Keoghan and Harris Dickinson stand onstage to promote the upcoming "The Beatles" movies during a Sony Pictures presentation.
Pic: Reuters
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(L-R) Mescal, Quinn, Keoghan and Dickinson appeared together at the announcement. Pic: Reuters

Mendes is making four interconnected films – one from the perspective of each of the band members – and they are all set to be released “in proximity” to each other in April 2028.

It marks the first time The Beatles and the families of John Lennon and George Harrison have granted full life story and music rights for a scripted film.

Playing McCartney is another big role for 29-year-old Mescal, who recently starred in the Gladiator sequel and was nominated for an Oscar in 2023 for Aftersun.

Barry Keoghan – who also got an Oscar nod for The Banshees of Inisherin – will portray the other surviving Beatles member, Ringo Starr.

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The Beatles
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Pic: PA

Meanwhile, Stranger Things star Joseph Quinn, who appeared with long hair as Eddie Munson in the fourth series, takes up the role of George Harrison.

Harris Dickinson has the challenge of stepping into the shoes of perhaps the most famous Beatle, John Lennon.

The 28-year-old recently starred in erotic thriller Babygirl with Nicole Kidman and also appeared in satire Triangle of Sadness.

Mendes told the industry audience at CinemaCon there is “still plenty to explore” despite the Beatles’ rise having being well chronicled.

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The Oscar-winning British director is known for films including American Beauty, First World War movie 1917, and Bond outings Skyfall and Spectre.

Sony Pictures boss Tom Rothman said the close release of all four films in three years’ time will be “the first bingeable theatrical experience”.

“We are going to dominate the culture that month,” he added.

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