A nurse has been convicted by a Dublin Circuit Criminal Court jury of poisoning an elderly patient at Naas General Hospital three years ago after administering him an unprescribed sedative.
Ms Noreen Mulholland (35), now living in Park Road, Portadown, Co Armagh, and previously of Runabeg Close, Kildare, was found guilty of poisoning Mr John Gethings (77), Baltinglass, Co Wicklow, at the hospital on March 1st, 2003.
The jury returned its unanimous verdict following over eight hours of deliberation on the 19th day of the trial.
Judge Frank O'Donnell has sent the jury of six men and six women to a hotel for a second consecutive night after it failed to return a verdict on three other charges, following a further 90 minutes deliberations.
The jury still has to consider a charge against Ms Mulholland of poisoning Mr Seamus Doherty (80), Rathcoffey, Naas, Co Kildare, between June 18th-19th, 2003, and assaulting both Mr Gethings and Mr Doherty.
She had pleaded not guilty to intentionally or recklessly administering a substance, Serenase, to both men, knowing it was capable of interfering substantially with their bodily functions without their consent.
She also denied assaulting Mr Gethings, causing him harm, on March 1st, 2003, and assault causing Mr Doherty harm between June 18th-19th, 2003.
The jury will resume its deliberations this morning.
Orla Crowe, prosecuting, has told the jury that Mr Gethings died on March 2nd, 2003, but emphasised that it was not the State's case that Ms Mulholland was responsible for his death.
Earlier the court heard from a colleague of Ms Mulholland's, Sharon Baxter, that she saw Ms Mulholland "very brutally and very roughly" inject Mr Gethings with an unprescribed drug.
Ms Baxter was working with Ms Mulholland in the Curragh ward on the night of March 1st and said that Mr Gethings was under Ms Mulholland's care. He was restless and agitated and she heard him call out numerous times.
At one stage she heard him call out: "I am dying. I am dying." At 2 am she heard Ms Mulholland say that she had to give the patient something "to shut him up". She told Ms Baxter that she would show her the patient's prescription chart later before she quickly drew Serenase into a syringe and went to Mr Gethings.
Ms Baxter followed and went to the patient where she said she tried to reassure him and tell him he was going to get "a little injection" and that he would feel a "pinch", when she heard the man "let out a roar".
She looked up to see Ms Mulholland giving him an intra muscular injection in the buttock "very roughly and very brutally".
As Ms Mulholland withdrew the needle, Ms Baxter saw that she had used a 16 gauge white needle, which she explained was not the correct needle to use for an intra muscular injection.
The correct needle was a 23 gauge blue needle which, she said, was a lot smaller.
Ms Baxter told the jury she later checked Mr Gethings chart and saw that he had been prescribed Serenase by a doctor but it had been prescribed in a once-nightly tablet form and not via an intra muscular injection.
She also saw that Ms Mulholland had given the patient this Serenase tablet at 10.30 pm that night.