Appeal judges yesterday reduced the seven-year jail sentence of a former NHS worker who poisoned a child with “industrial quantities” of laxative.
Tracy Menhinick was found guilty of intentionally harming the young man earlier this year after a 19-day trial at Aberdeen High Court.
But lawyers for the former auxiliary nurse, 52, challenged the sentence handed down to her at the Court of Appeal in Edinburgh, arguing it was “excessive”.
And the appeal judges agreed despite admitting that the harm caused to the victim was high.
Lord Doherty, sitting with Lord Matthews, said: “We accept the appeal, quashing the sentence of seven years’ imprisonment and replacing it with five years’ imprisonment.”
They explained that they took into account that, until committing the crime, Menhinick had led “a pro-social life”, although severely affected by his own mental health problems.
And her physical and mental health problems also meant that imprisonment would be a greater punishment for her.
Tracy Menhinick (pictured) was found guilty of intentionally harming the young man earlier this year after a 19-day trial at Aberdeen High Court.
Ms Menhinick was pictured leaving Glasgow High Court after being found guilty of intentionally harming a child earlier this year.
Defense lawyer Frances Connor said that due to the seriousness of the crime she did not argue that a prison sentence was inappropriate.
But he said a lesser prison sentence could be imposed to allow Menhinick to return to the community and “try to reestablish some life for herself.”
She said: “It is a very rare crime, linked to compulsive behavior that is little understood.”
Menhinick was found guilty of intentionally mistreating the boy by feeding him laxatives, resulting in unnecessary operations and treatments that left him disfigured, deteriorated and in danger of death.
The offenses were said to have taken place over a three-year period starting in 2014, when the boy was aged between three and six at Aberdeen, the city’s children’s hospital and elsewhere.
But the court heard that once he was removed from her care, his health and development progressed rapidly, although he was left severely scarred.
The offenses are said to have taken place over a three-year period starting in 2014, when the boy was aged between three and six at Aberdeen, the city’s children’s hospital and other locations (pictured Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital) .
Trial judge Lady Drummond told Menhinick: “You deliberately mistreated him and made him ill. He got so bad that he had to be admitted to the hospital several times.
‘One of the doctors who testified in this case described him as emaciated on his last admission to hospital.
—You had been an auxiliary nurse and you knew what you were doing. You caused me to be in that state.
You had to undergo intrusive and risky operations that you knew were unnecessary and that you had caused the need to perform.
“It cannot be understood why anyone would want to inflict such serious harm and suffering, endangering the life of a young child on multiple occasions over a period of years.”
In the opinion of a psychiatrist. Menhinick suffered from mental disorders. The case also pointed to Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a condition in which one person seeks medical care for another for falsified, exaggerated or deliberately induced symptoms.