Former Aberdeen NHS worker guilty of poisoning young boy
- Published
Tracy Ann Menhinick was on trial at the High Court in Aberdeen
A former NHS worker has been found guilty of poisoning a young child.
Tracy Menhinick, from Aberdeen, was found to have given the boy "industrial amounts" of the laxative lactulose, which resulted in his growth being stunted and led to his hospitalisation.
One expert witness said the child resembled a survivor from a concentration camp as a result.
It is understood the boy has since recovered, but has been left with permanent disfigurements.
The trial, which lasted 19 days at the High Court in Aberdeen, heard 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.
Wheelchair user Menhinick broke down as the verdict was read out.
Lady Drummond said Menhinick's actions had put the child's life at risk while "abusing all trust" placed in her.
Emeritus professor in paediatric gastroenterology at Oxford University Dr Peter Sullivan, gave evidence and told the court he came to the conclusion 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 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.
The child was abused at Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital
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".
Defence agent Frances Connor had urged the jury not to believe the "spin and twist" the Crown had put on the situation.
She spoke to the evidence of Dr Findley and how he had been "dismayed" by the Child Protection Report produced by the staff at Aberdeen's Children's Hospital, and he found it "ill-informed and frankly misleading".
Lady Drummond deferred sentencing for steps to be put in place for Menhinick to be imprisoned, due to Menhinick's health problems.
Menhinick will be sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow on 19 March.
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