A former Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital auxiliary nurse who poisoned a young child may have been affected by a mental disorder, a court hearing was told today.
Tracy Menhinick, 52, gave the boy “industrial amounts” of the laxative lactulose, which resulted in his growth being stunted and led to his hospitalisation.
One expert witness previously said the child resembled a survivor from a Nazi concentration camp as a result.
It is understood the boy has since recovered but has been left with permanent disfigurements.
Menhinick was due to be sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow today, however, a judge postponed punishing the first-time offender until next month.
‘It is recognised that mental disorders can impact on offending’
Frances Connor, defending, told the High Court in Glasgow that her client has a “complex psychological history” which includes Munchausen by proxy and bipolar disorder.
Judge Lady Drummond replied: “What is puzzling me is the psychological reports address fitness to stand trial or plead and give instructions or more recently looking at her risk in prison.
“It is suggested in the report that Miss Menhinick psychological or mental disorder has impacted on her offending behaviour.
“This is something I require to take into account when sentencing her. At the moment I don’t see in the reports analysis of that.
“I feel I need to understand that better before I can sentence her. It is recognised that mental disorders can impact on offending.”
Miss Connor responded: “The question which is significant at the moment is how that may or may not have impacted on her culpability.”
The sentencing was deferred until next month.
Lady Drummond explained: “The purpose is to get a psychiatrist’s report from the doctor for what impact her mental disorder would have had on her offending behaviour.
“This is to inform me of her culpability for sentencing purposes.”
Trial heard the sick boy received ‘industrial amounts’ of laxative
Menhinick was convicted last month following a 19-day trial at the High Court in Aberdeen.
A jury had deliberated 5,500 pages of evidence and medical records relating to the youngster and his failure to gain weight.
The child was aged between three and six at the time of the Munchausen by proxy poisoning – which is a specific mental illness most often linked to child abuse by a caregiver.
At one stage the boy was admitted to hospital weighing just under 10kg at the age of five.
Jurors heard evidence from emeritus professor in paediatric gastroenterology at Oxford University Dr Peter Sullivan.
He had come to the conclusion that the boy must have received “industrial amounts” of lactulose.
The boy had been admitted to hospital in October 2016 amid concerns for his weight loss and explosive diarrhoea – and at that time Menhinick was closely observed by child protection officers.
No evidence was found of Menhinick poisoning the child at that time.
Dr Sullivan was asked if the medical staff at Royal Aberdeen’s Children’s Hospital had investigated all possible causes for the boy’s weight loss, to which he replied: “Yes, they did.”
Dr Sullivan added: “It was beyond reasonable doubt that he had been administered significant quantities of lactulose.”
He explained from reading the boy’s medical notes from the hospital that he had been settled overnight, but once Menhinick had been to care for him, he would suffer from explosive diarrhoea within hours.
Menhinick was removed from caring for the boy after a test result from Great Ormond Street Hospital confirmed lactulose was present in his stool sample.
Dr Sullivan said the boy’s condition “dramatically” improved once Menhinick was no longer allowed to care for the child and he concluded Munchausen by proxy, also known as Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII), was the reason.
The prosecution also said Menhinick had been able to “predict” when the child would have an episode and that she had pursued more invasive treatments, while a bottle of lactulose had been found after her house was searched.
Fiscal depute Paul Kearney said there was a “transformational” change in the boy after Menhinick was removed from being his carer.
He urged the jury to ignore the idea that a “phantom nurse” had administered lactulose to the child.
Great Ormond Street Hospital’s consultant gastroenterologist Dr Keith Findley gave evidence and said he did not think the medical staff at Aberdeen had “thoroughly” investigated the child.
He told the court that the watery losses the child was experiencing were “catastrophic” and he was so thin that he was looking like “someone from Auschwitz”.
The disgraced ex-NHS worker spent more than 10 years working as an auxiliary nurse at Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital.
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