Woman who poisoned child with laxatives jailed for seven years

A woman convicted of harming a child with laxatives, which affected his development, has been jailed for seven years.

Tracy Menhinick, 52, was found guilty of “wilfully” ill-treating the child in a manner likely to cause him unnecessary suffering or injury to health on various occasions over the course of three years from 2014.

She administered a non-prescribed medication, namely the laxative lactulose, which caused his development and mobility to be affected and led to him being admitted to hospital.

Menhinick, of Aberdeen, then consented to treatments, procedures and operations on the child which she knew were unnecessary, “all to his permanent disfigurement, permanent impairment and to the danger of his life”, the indictment said.

She was convicted in February following a trial at the High Court in Aberdeen.

Menhinick was jailed for seven years when she appeared for sentencing at the High Court in Glasgow on Tuesday.

The ill-treatment happened on various occasions when the boy was aged between three and six at an address in Aberdeen, at Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital and elsewhere.

The child cannot be named for legal reasons.