A CANCER sufferer allegedly murdered by his doctor was described as "failing" in the hours before potentially lethal doses of morphine were given to him.

But the jury in the case of GP Howard Martin was told yesterday that Frank Moss did not appear to be in pain when the drugs were administered.

A court has heard that one expert said he would not have expected a patient to survive being given 60mg injections of morphine as Mr Moss had.

Yesterday, Dr Peter Robson, a consultant in palliative medicine, agreed that the doses were "very large" for a first use of the drug.

Dr Robson also said he would have checked a patient before administering another measure later the same day.

Mr Moss, 59, who had cancer of the lung and brain, was said to have been unconscious after the first injection, given on the afternoon of March 13, 2003.

Later that night, Dr Martin repeated the medication and in the early hours of the following day, Mr Moss was dead.

The jury was told that on March 13, a community nurse visited Mr Moss at his home in Eldon, near Bishop Auckland, County Durham, on two occasions, but he never complained of being in pain.

"Functionally, he was failing," said Dr Robson. "Lots of accounts describe how he was becoming weaker, losing weight, not eating and being breathless, but pain doesn't seem to feature largely in the descriptions, which doesn't mean there wasn't any. He could have been a man who could tolerate pain."

Dr Martin, who worked as a GP for the Jubilee Medical Group, in County Durham, denies murdering Mr Moss.

He is also accused of the murders of patients Stanley Weldon, 74, from Coundon Grange, near Bishop Auckland, and Harry Gittins, 74, from Newton Aycliffe.

The 71-year-old, who now lives in Gywnedd, North Wales, denies all charges.

The trial continues.