A nurse who murdered two aged care residents with insulin after they made complaints about her has had her appeal on 20 grounds dismissed Former nurse Megan Jean Haines was tried in late 2016 before Justice Peter Garling and a jury in the Supreme Court at Sydney on two counts of murder. The court found that Ms Haines, while employed as a registered nurse at the St Andrews Aged Care facility in Ballina, murdered residents Isabella Spencer, 77, and Marie Darragh, 82, after they made complaints about her. Ms Haines had been told that Ms Darragh had complained about her refusing to give her a cream to soothe an itch and also that she had made a rude comment, while Ms Spencer said Ms Haines had refused to assist her in reaching the toilet. At the time of the complaints, Ms Haines was subject to reporting conditions with AHPRA after having had her registration previously cancelled a few years’ back due to allegations of unprofessional conduct. The prosecution asserted that Ms Haines thought it would be likely that further complaints, if substantiated, would end her nursing career. Ms Haines was found to have murdered Ms Spencer and Ms Darragh by injecting each of them with insulin. Neither Ms Spencer nor Ms Darragh were insulin dependent. An insulin ampoule, usually kept in the medication room of the facility, was found to have been missing in the facility on the day of their deaths. As a result of the insulin injection, both Ms Spencer and Ms Darragh fell into a hypoglycaemic coma and died. Both murder counts were alleged to have been committed on 10 May 2014 at Ballina, NSW. The jury returned a verdict of guilty on each count.
