Two nurses have been found guilty of unlawfully drugging patients – amid allegations they did so for their own amusement and an easy life.

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, Preston Crown Court heard.

They faced a total of nine counts concerning five patients, with Hudson found not guilty of three counts.

A police investigation was launched after a student nurse on a work placement told authorities she saw Hudson give unprescribed Zopiclone, a sleeping pill said to be potentially life threatening if given inappropriately, to a patient in November 2018.

Prosecutors said messages exchanged between Hudson, an experienced Band 5 registered nurse, and Wilmot, a Band 4 assistant practitioner, revealed a “culture of abuse”.

Hudson denied ill-treating four patients by unlawfully sedating them and stealing the medicine Mebeverine, while Wilmot, denied encouraging Hudson to sedate one of those patients.

Both defendants had also pleaded not guilty to conspiring to ill-treat another patient.

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