Care assistant gives evidence in nurse trial

A hospital care assistant has told a Dublin Circuit Criminal Court jury that she saw a nurse on trial for allegedly poisoning patients "quite forcefully and quite roughly" give an injection to an elderly patient.

Ms Daphne Leopardi was giving evidence on day-nine of the trial of the nurse who has pleaded not guilty to four charges in relation to two elderly patients at Naas General Hospital in 2003.

Ms Noreen Mulholland, aged 35, now living in Park Road, Portadown, County Armagh denies assault causing harm to Mr John Gethings, aged 77, Baltinglass, County Wicklow on March 1, 2003. and to Mr Seamus Doherty, aged 80, Rathcoffey, Naas, County Kildare between June 18-19, 2003.

Ms Mulholland, previously of Runabeg Close, Kildare, also denies intentionally or recklessly administering a substance, Serenese, to both men, knowing it was capable of interfering substantially with their bodily functions without their consent on the same dates.

Ms Orla Crowe BL, prosecuting, has told the jury that Mr Gethings died on March 2, 2003 but emphasised that it was not the State’s case that Ms Mulholland was responsible for his death.

Ms Leopardi said that Mr Doherty "yelled out" after she saw Ms Mulholland inject him "quite forcefully and quite roughly" into his right buttock with a white needle, which she described as a thicker needle than would normally be used.

She walked away but returned to his bed later because he was still shouting very loudly. Ms Mulholland was still there and when she asked the accused what was going on she said nothing and just smiled at her.

Ms Leopardi told Ms Crowe that Mr Doherty was constantly "yelling" after that and was "still yelling" when the ward sister began her duty at 7.40 a.m.

She said the ward sister asked her who was doing all the "yelling" and when she replied it was Mr Doherty they both agreed that he wouldn’t normally behave in that way.

She said she didn’t see a doctor on the ward or hear anyone make a phone call to a doctor that night.

Ms Leopardi didn’t agree with Mr Giollaiosa O Lideadha SC, defending, that she was mistaken that it was a big white needle that Ms Mulholland had used and told him she was certain of it because the needle was thicker than usual.

She said she couldn’t recall if a hospital attendant, Mr Tony Browne, was present when Ms Mulholland injected Mr Doherty but she was certain Ms Sinead Noonan-Norton, who has given evidence, was there.

She accepted that she didn’t make any reference to Mr Browne in her first garda statement but agreed that when gardai put it to her during a second interview that Ms Mulholland claimed Mr Browne was there she agreed and told gardai he was.

She didn’t accept a suggestion by Mr O Lideadha that she hadn’t witnessed the incident at all and that she had conjured up the event in her mind.

"I did not. I would not be here if I had," Ms Leopardi replied.

She also didn’t accept that her description of what happened was not factually correct but agreed that if her evidence stated she witnessed the injection from the same spot of the bed that Ms Noonan-Norton claimed she witnessed it from, that both testimonies could not be correct.

"We could not have both been standing in the same spot at the same place," Ms Leopardi said.

She rejected a further suggestion from Mr O Lideadha that when she heard talk about the incident with Mr Doherty she started to make her evidence up in her mind because she wanted to be a main player.

She further rejected a suggestion made by Ms Mulholland to gardai that when Mr Doherty first started shouting that night she came to his bed where the accused already was and told the patient to "shut up, just shut up".

She also didn’t accept a suggestion that she later asked Ms Noonan-Norton at the nurse station what was wrong with Mr Doherty and why would he not shut up.

Mr Tony Browne said that he didn’t witness any incidents involving Mr Doherty and Ms Mulholland and that he didn’t witness Ms Mulholland give the patient any injections.

He agreed with Mr O Lideadha he described Ms Mulholland in his garda statement as "a very pleasant and bubbly person who was always having a laugh" and he got the impression that she was liked by both patients and staff.

The trial continues before Judge Frank O’Donnell and a jury of six women and six men.