A NURSE described as caring and friendly towards her handicapped patients and ''a role model for junior staff'', was yesterday fined #200 at Falkirk Sheriff Court, after being found guilty of slapping a patient's face.
Joyce Heron's victim, 46-year-old Catherine Logan, was severely mentally and physically handicapped, having been born with a congenital illness, and had been admitted to the Royal Scottish National Hospital at Larbert, Stirlingshire, at the age of 16.
The court was told that she weighed just more than three stones when she was attacked by the nurse on July 26, 1997.
Heron, 34, of Cartburn Street, Greenock, denied assaulting Miss Logan - who died last June of natural causes - but was convicted of the attack in the bathroom of the hospital's Dornoch ward.
Defence lawyer Paddy Imray said the effect of the case on Heron had been ''catastrophic''. Once described as friendly and caring to her patients and commended as '' a role model for junior staff'', she had now separated from her husband and had been sacked by the hospital after its own investigation into the assault.
Sheriff Brian Murphy told Heron: ''It's very said that your career has been curtailed by a momentary impulse.'' But he said she breached a special position of trust, and fined her #200.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article