A NURSE who poisoned her best friend’s baby out of jealousy is facing a nursing tribunal for the second time in five years.
Veronica Duncan, 46, was suspended from nursing in 2009 after injecting the four-month-old tot with dangerous levels of insulin.
Mrs Duncan, who had previously lost her one-year-old daughter, revealed to police at the time that she was so “jealous and envious” of her friends healthy baby that she injected the tot’s stomach with the diabetes drug.
Duncan faces another NMC hearing on April 16
But now, the intensive care nurse , is facing a disciplinary hearing after being found guilty of committing housing benefit fraud.
Duncan was convicted of the fraud at Edinburgh Sheriff Courtin February 2011 and will now face a conduct and competence hearing at the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC.)
Duncanwas sentenced to 100 hours of community service for her crime.
The NMC claim that her “fitness to practice” is impaired by reason of her conviction and she is due to appear at the NMC on Monday, April 16 for her hearing.
The nurse had a murder charge dropped and pleaded guilty to assault after maliciously injecting the baby with dangerous levels of the drug in 2007.
At the High Court in Edinburgh in October 2007, the court heard that Duncan attacked the baby after being left alone with her friend’s 4-month-old girl.
Edinburgh Royal Infirmary
Duncan, who worked at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary at the time, offered to dress the tot while the mum, also a nurse, got changed.
The grieving nurse then took the opportunity to repeatedly inject the baby in the stomach with insulin which she had carried in her bag on purpose.
The two women then had lunch together and in the afternoon, the mum took her son to a swimming lesson with her baby girl.
The mum noticed the baby was not waking up and she was rushed to Borders General Hospital.
Doctors immediately thought she had a virus and battled to save the girl’s life.
Meanwhile, Duncan sat in the waiting room of the hospital and failed to tell anyone what she had done.
After a search of Duncan’s house, she finally admitted to police that she intentionally overdosed the baby and said that she was overwhelmed with jealously and envy at her friend’s healthy child, having lost her own baby just months previously.
Tragic
Andrew Murphy, defending, said the case was set against a “weird and tragic” background.
He told the court that psychiatrists believed that at the time of the attack, Duncan was suffering from a mental disorder which fell short of mental illness.
He said: “It was reckless and irrational and committed when this lady was in a state of mental disorder.
“She is abjectly apologetic to the family for the concerns and pains she has caused them and the sense of betrayal they may feel.
“All she can say is she wasn’t herself at the time.
“She couldn’t believe what had happened and this condition can create a sense of trance or detachment in the individual.”
Duncan’s daughter Anna died at the family home in Cardrona in May 2006 from an infection after catching chickenpox.
She had been given the controversial MMR jab a fortnight previously.
As well as her year-long suspension from nursing,Duncanwas given three years probation with strict conditions, underwent psychiatric treatment — and was banned from unsupervised contact with kids under seven.
Last year, the tot’s mum blasted the NMC for suspendingDuncan, rather than striking her off.
She said: ““I suspect the only reason they suspended her from practice was because she was on probation and couldn’t be allowed to work as a nurse.”
