Two women who worked as nurses at Muckamore Abbey Hospital have been given suspended prison sentences over separate incidents relating to the ill-treatment of a mental health patient.
Stacey Cooke-Milne (36) was given a four-month prison sentence and Bronagh Agnew (35) a five-month prison sentence at Antrim Magistrates Court, sitting in Ballymena, on Tuesday.
Sentencing the women in the separate cases, District Court Judge Nigel Broderick said that given their clear records, remorse and delays in bringing the cases through the court, he would suspend the prison sentences for two years.
Broderick said he was “acutely aware” the victim had been extremely vulnerable. And in describing the offending as very serious, he told the defendants their offences were aggravated because of the breach of trust.
RM Block
He said that the victim had been placed into the care of staff at Muckamore Abbey Hospital in Co Antrim, where his family expected him to be cared for but in ill-treating him, they had “fallen below that high standard”.
At an earlier hearing, Cooke-Milne, from Greenpark Drive in Antrim, entered guilty pleas to three charges relating to the wilful neglect and ill-treatment of the patient in June and July 2017.
Agnew, with an address on the Lisnahunshin Road in Ballymena, contested the case against her but was convicted of wilful neglect and falsifying a record in May 2017.
In the case against Cooke-Milne, the court saw CCTV of another nurse dragging the agitated-looking victim across the floor by the arm as the accused looked on.
Her offence, the court heard, was failing to intervene or record her colleague’s actions. She also mishandled the patient during another incident by pulling him by the arms.
In relation to Agnew’s offending, the prosecuting lawyer told the court there had been an incident in May 2017 when “significant force” was applied to the patient by a different healthcare worker, including the use of a knee in the man’s back.
The man’s head was banged off the wall during the incident and Agnew, the court heard, “was seen standing observing this”.
In addition to failing to intervene or report, Agnew entered a false account on a patient incident record, writing that he had banged his own head off the wall “because he was bored”.
Both women, the court was told, face the “inevitable” consequence of being struck off as nurses.
