Former Aberdeen NHS worker jailed for poisoning young boy

Tracy Menhinick was sentenced to seven years in prison

A former NHS worker from Aberdeen has been sentenced to seven years in prison for poisoning a young child.

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 said the child resembled a survivor from a concentration camp as a result.

Menhinick was found guilty after a trial at the High Court in Aberdeen.

The court heard 5,500 pages of evidence and medical records relating to the youngster and his failure to gain weight over 19 days.

Menhinick cried in court throughout the sentencing proceedings at the High Court in Glasgow.

Judge Lady Drummond 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."

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

At the age of five, the boy was admitted to hospital weighing just under 10kg. It is understood he recovered, but was left permanently disfigured.

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.

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

Menhinick was closely observed by child protection officers, but no evidence was found of her poisoning the child at that time.

The child was admitted to hospital in 2016

She was later removed from caring for the boy after a test result from Great Ormond Street Hospital in London confirmed lactulose was present in his stool sample.

The boy's condition improved once Menhinick was no longer allowed to care for him.

Judge Lady Drummond said Menhinick's actions had put the child's life at risk.

She told Menhinick: "You deliberately ill-treated him and made him unwell. He became so unwell he was repeatedly admitted to hospital.

"One of the doctors who gave evidence in this case described him as being emaciated on his last admission to hospital.

"The doctors were left baffled as to why, despite all their intense efforts to care and treat the child, the many tests and variations in treatments, he was not gaining weight and thriving."

'Abused' position of trust

The judge said the amount of laxatives the child was given resulted in "floppy episodes" and he had to be resuscitated.

She added: "You agreed that he should undergo intrusive and risky operations knowing that these were unnecessary and that the need for them had been caused by you.

"You were an auxiliary nurse and you knew what you were doing. You caused him to be in that state.

"Even once admitted to hospital you made sure you could continue to give him dangerous levels of laxatives."

Lady Drummond said Menhinick "abused" the position of trust put on her by the child and the hospital.

She said: "A doctor's opinion is that you suffer from a mental disorder.

"You do not accept that you have this disorder and that your motivations are unclear for your actions.

"The doctor said you do not require hospital treatment for the mental disorder."

Frances Connor, defending, told the sentencing that her client was bed bound but for visits to court and hospital.

The advocate said: "It is unlikely that she will care for any other individual in the future. She does not pose a risk to the public.

"She is a woman who suffers from complex needs.

"According to the doctor, she has long-standing mental health issues which are contributing factors to her offending and her lack of insight into it."

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