UK: Nurse who deliberately poisoned young boy with laxatives jailed for seven years

A former NHS worker who deliberately poisoned a young boy with "industrial amounts" of laxatives has been sentenced to seven years in prison.

Auxiliary nurse Tracy Menhinick, 52, administered a non-prescribed medication, namely the laxative lactulose, which caused the child's development and mobility to be affected and led to him being admitted to hospital.

Menhinick, of Aberdeen, then consented to treatments, procedures and operations which she knew were unnecessary, "all to his permanent disfigurement, permanent impairment and to the danger of his life".

She was found guilty in February of wilfully ill-treating the child in a manner likely to cause him unnecessary suffering or injury to health on various occasions over the course of three years from 2014.

The ill-treatment happened when the boy - who cannot be named for legal reasons - was aged between three and six, at an address in Aberdeen, at Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital, and elsewhere.

Judge Lady Drummond highlighted that a witness during the trial described the boy as "emaciated".

The judge told Menhinick: "You caused him to be in that state."

The child also suffered from episodes which led to his body going "floppy" and "limp".

Lady Drummond noted that he had to be resuscitated on an occasion and has suffered physical scarring.

The judge stated: "Your ill-treatment of him has had a devastating impact on his life."

Menhinick was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow on Tuesday after her case had been deferred for a psychiatric report.

Lady Drummond was earlier told by Menhinick's defence that she had a "package of mental health problems" which may have affected her culpability.

Menhinick, who appeared at court in a wheelchair, was said to now be bed-bound.

Lady Drummond noted that Menhinick had suffered childhood trauma.