The nurse convicted of poisoning one patient and assaulting two at Naas General Hospital has received a four-year suspended sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. Judge Frank O'Donnell said Noreen Mulholland (35), Park Road, Portadown, Co Armagh, formerly Runabeg Close, Kildare, was in charge of two men who were entrusted into her care and that her behaviour represented a "serious breach of trust towards the most vulnerable in our society".
Judge O'Donnell said he had taken into account a psychological report which detailed a harrowing and disturbing childhood where she witnessed "the exploitation of her mother by her father". She had also suffered at the hands of her father and had been the victim of sexual assault by a neighbour.
It was his opinion, the judge continued, having considered Mulholland's reaction to the trial and to previous professional criticism, that she was in a "continuous and consistent trenchant denial" about her behaviour towards John Gethings (77), Baltinglass, Co Wicklow and Séamus Doherty (80), Rathcoffey, Naas, Co Kildare, both now deceased.
Judge O'Donnell said he had also taken into account that apart from the incidents for which she was convicted, witnesses had described Mulholland's "performance" in glowing terms. He believed Mulholland had already suffered and he had no doubt that she would continue to do so now that she would never again practise as a nurse. It was his "honest opinion" that she would not come before the courts again and that nobody would be served by her spending time in prison.
He sentenced her to two concurrent four-year sentences on the charges of assaulting Mr Gethings and Mr Doherty and to another concurrent two years for poisoning Mr Gethings, but suspended them in full for five years.
Mulholland was convicted by a jury last October of poisoning and assaulting Mr Gethings in March 2003 and of assaulting Mr Doherty causing him harm in June 2003, but she was found not guilty of poisoning him on the same occasion.
She had pleaded not guilty.
A previous sitting of the court was told that Sharon Baxter, a colleague of Mulholland, saw her give Mr Gethings a Serenase injection "very brutally and very roughly".
Ms Baxter later checked Mr Gethings's chart and found that he was only prescribed the drug once a night in tablet form and that Mulholland had given him the tablet earlier that night. Mr Gethings died the next morning after he went into cardiac arrest.
However, Orla Crowe, prosecuting, told the jury it was not the State's case that Mulholland was responsible for his death.
Another nurse, Sinéad Noone-Norton, testified that she saw Mulholland "very roughly" inject Mr Doherty with Serenase. She heard the patient then call out "help" and Mulholland tell him to "shut up" before she threw a glass of water over the elderly man.
Ms Noone-Norton said she stepped outside the curtain surrounding the bed but walked back in and saw Mulholland holding the needle in her fist in a threatening manner while pointing it at Mr Doherty.
Before sentencing, Mulholland expressed regret through her counsel for the distress caused to the victims' families. She had no previous convictions.