Former NHS worker who poisoned boy has sentence cut

Tracy Menhinick had been jailed for seven years

A former NHS worker who was jailed for poisoning a young child has had her sentence cut.

Tracy Menhinick, 52, from Aberdeen, gave the boy "industrial" amounts of the laxative lactulose, which resulted in his growth being stunted and led to his hospitalisation.

On one occasion the boy was admitted to hospital weighing under 10kg (1.6 stone) when he was five.

Menhinick was found guilty at the High Court in Aberdeen earlier this year. She was jailed for seven years, but appeal judges have reduced the prison term to five years.

The boy had been admitted to hospital in October 2016 amid concerns about weight loss and diarrhoea.

The child was aged between three and six at the time of the poisoning.

It is understood he recovered, but was left permanently disfigured.

Wheelchair user and former auxiliary nurse Menhinick was found to suffer the factitious disorder formerly known as Munchausen's syndrome by proxy, also known as Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII), where someone deliberately causes symptoms of illness in a child.

'Beyond understanding'

Judge Lady Drummond had told her: "Why anybody would want to inflict such severe harm and suffering, endangering the life of a young child on multiple occasions over a period of years, is beyond understanding."

The judge concluded that a "lengthy period of imprisonment" was the only appropriate course of action.

The sentence was challenged at the Court of Appeal in Edinburgh.

The appeal judges said that although the harm caused to the victim was high, the seven-year sentence was viewed as excessive.

They also noted that because of her physical and mental health issues confinement in prison would be more of a punishment for her.