Fear nurse was 'out to kill': inquest
"I just had a feeling he was out to kill us that night".
Assistant nurse Sidonia Thompson was fearful on the evening her colleague Roger Dean lit the fatal fire which killed 14 people at the Quakers Hill Nursing Home in 2011.
In the hours before the blaze, Ms Thompson said she had a feeling something was going to happen.
"I really thought there was a gun or some weapon in his bag," she told an inquest into the fire on Tuesday.
Ms Thompson said Dean told her and another staffer Maria Gratil to go on a break together.
"He had such an evil look on his face and there was no way I was going to leave Maria with him," she said.
The police were called after CCTV footage caught Dean walking into the treatment room on multiple occasions during his overnight shift on November 16, two days before the blaze.
Despite this, Ms Gratil said she saw the clinical manager give Dean keys to the treatment room and medication cabinet during the following night shift.
"I was so worried we will be with Roger Dean and I'm already scared of him that night," she told the inquest at Glebe Coroners Court.
The inquest has heard staff suspected Dean had stolen hundreds of tablets.
Ms Thompson said on the night of November 16, Dean was in the medication room with the door shut and she could hear blister packets popping.
The next day an audit found more than 230 strong painkilling tablets were missing.
Ms Thompson, who claimed she had already made adverse reports about Dean, told a manager on November 17 about hearing Dean in the medication room.
"(I said) maybe now you will take note of what I tell you about him and this is what he did last night," she recalled on Tuesday.
Janette Mitchell, who worked at the nursing home for 26 years, suspected Dean was behind the missing medication.
However she confirmed there were no discussions with a manager about Dean being suspended or sent home straight away.
Dean has pleaded guilty to 11 counts of murder and is serving life behind bars.
The inquest continues.
