THE husband of a nurse who was jailed for five years after being convicted of trying to kill two patients has spoken of his joy as judges ruled she could appeal.

The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, Mr Justice Ouseley and Mr Justice Treacy granted Barbara Salisbury the right at the London Criminal Appeal Court on Monday.

Mr Salisbury said: "On behalf of Barbara and the family I thank everyone who has supported Barbara and in particular those who have come to say, as we believe, that they think she is innocent.

"We have faith that when the appeal is heard, Barbara will be returned to us as the innocent woman we know she is."

Mrs Salisbury, 48, was jailed at Chester Crown Court last June, after being found guilty of trying to murder Frank Owen, 92, and May Taylor, 88, at Leighton Hospital in 2002.

She was cleared of attempting to murder James Byrne, a 76-year-old Davenham man in 1999 and Reuben Thompson, 81, a former Middlewich furniture maker in 2002.

Her defence councsel maintained throughout her trial that the ward sister was the victim of a colleague hate campaign and was not guilty of trying to 'mercy-kill' patients by administering lethal doses of the painkiller diamorphine.

Lord Woolf said the appeal decision was important for Barbara Salisbury, the public and the relatives of the deceased. He said a case should be heard that the original convictions were 'unsafe' after defence barrister Emma Edhem said the trial judge should have taken away Mrs Taylor's case at the end of the prosecution evidence.

Ms Edhem added the original case was so weak that Mrs Salisbury had no case to answer.

No date has been set as yet for the appeal hearing.