A JURY has been asked to consider whether a nurse should be solely responsible for the death of a Blackburn toddler.

Mr Patrick Cosgrove QC, defending, at Liverpool Crown Court told the jury Rose Aru was "out of her depth" on the day of Jake McGeough's death.

But he said that as well as human error there had been "structural failings" and "systematic errors" and he asked the jury to consider whether it was right to put all the blame on Aru.

In summing up the defence case on the sixth day of the trial Mr Cosgrove said: "You have to imagine what it is like to be a human being in a given situation. Rose Aru accepts that she made a mistake, she reacted wrongly and in error and in the language of the courts she acted negligently.

"But the question in did she act so negligently to make her a criminal?"

Mr Wright said there was "a catalogue of disasters" on that day which had ultimately led to Jake's death.

Jake, of Leicester Road, Whitebirk, died on July 8, 2001, two days after Aru had mistakenly injected him with the muscle-relaxing drug vecuronium instead of a sedative during a routine lung scan at Alder Hey Children's Hospital, Liverpool.

He was not prescribed either drug and she did not have permission to give him the injection.

Aru was later charged with manslaughter, which she denies.

(Proceeding)