A nurse and a healthcare worker have been jailed after patients were sedated for an “easy shift” and “amusement”.

Catherine Hudson, 54, and Charlotte Wilmot, 48, ill-treated those in their care on a stroke unit at Blackpool Victoria Hospital in Lancashire between February 2017 and November 2018, the trial heard.

Sentencing the pair at Preston Crown Court, Judge Robert Altham said their duty was to protect and care for their patients, who were “as vulnerable as anyone could be”.

Instead they “exploited them for an easy shift, for amusement, to exercise a contemptuous power over them,” he said.

Hudson, who was described as the “leading offender”, was sentenced to seven years and two months in prison.

The court heard she sedated “all the troublemakers” and those she considered “a nightmare”.

Wilmot, who was supervised by Hudson, was sentenced to three years in prison.

Hudson was found guilty of ill-treating two patients. Both women were found guilty of conspiracy to ill-treat a patient by administering sedatives.

Wilmot was also found guilty of encouraging Hudson to sedate a patient, while Hudson was found guilty of theft of the drug Mebeverine – used for an end-of-life patient.

She pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to conspiring with other colleagues to steal other drugs including zopiclone and also a further offence of perverting the course of justice. Wilmot had also pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal medication from the hospital.

Police were alerted in November 2018 to investigate after a whistleblowing student nurse on a work placement said Hudson suggested administering unprescribed zopiclone to a patient – 76-year-old Aileen Scott.

Zopiclone is a class C controlled drug and is potentially life-threatening if given inappropriately to acutely unwell patients, the court heard.

The student nurse was further troubled when Hudson commented: “Well she’s got a DNAR (do not attempt resuscitation) in place so she wouldn’t be opened up if she died or like if it came to any harm.”

Ms Scott had been rushed to Blackpool Victoria after suffering a stroke in her room at the Imperial Hotel and was completely paralysed on the left side of her body.

Her son, Brian Scott, told the court the “bravery” of the whistleblower had “most likely saved my mum’s life”.

Giving his victim personal statement from the witness box, he turned to Hudson in the dock, and added: “Thanks to the bravery of a student nurse in highlighting you and your evil and uncaring ways, it has most likely saved my mum’s life.

“The way you spoke about them (patients) is beyond belief and nothing short of wicked and pure evil.”

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Prosecutors said a “culture of abuse” was revealed on the unit when police examined WhatsApp phone messages between the co-defendants and other members of staff.

Hudson wrote about one of her victims: “I sedated one of them to within an inch of her life lol. Bet she’s flat for a week haha xxx.”

In a message exchange about an elderly male patient, Hudson wrote: “I’m going to kill bed 5 xxx.”

Wilmot replied: “Pmsl (pissing myself laughing) well tonight sedate him to high heaven lol xxx.”

“Already in my head to give him double!!”

Giving evidence, both defendants denied all the allegations and claimed the private messages were “banter” and not supposed to be taken seriously.

They said the “gallows humour” was the venting of their frustrations at working in a chronically understaffed unit.

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