Megan Haines: Ex-nurse sentenced to 27 years in jail for murder of elderly women by insulin overdose,

A former nurse who murdered two elderly patients by injecting them with insulin has been sentenced to at least 27 years in jail.

Megan Haines killed 82-year old Marie Darragh and 77-year-old Isabella Spencer at St Andrews Village nursing home at Ballina in May 2014.

In the days before Mrs Darragh and Mrs Spencer died, they had made complaints about the standard of care they received from Haines.

The 49-year-old was given a maximum sentence of 36 years and will first be eligible for parole in 2041.

Justice Peter Garling said Haines abused her position of trust.

“Her conduct was deliberate and calculating. It was a gross breach of trust and a flagrant abuse of her power,” he said.

“She clearly abused that position of trust. I consider this to be a significant aggravating factor.

“I consider the offences to have been deliberate and calculated.”

The court heard that Haines, while watching a crime show with her former partner, had boasted about using insulin to kill a person without being detected.

When giving evidence, Haines, who pleaded not guilty to the murders, told the jury she could not remember the conversation.

However, she said she would sometimes discuss her nursing knowledge while watching similar TV shows.

Family ‘over the moon’ about sentence

Family and friends of the victims were in court in Sydney to see Haines sentenced.

Isabella Spencer’s brother, Rodney Spencer, was overcome with emotion and had to leave the room.

“I knew I’d lose a sister sooner or later but not in those circumstances and listening to what the judge said it started to get to me,” he said.

Mr Spencer said he was “over the moon” with the lengthy sentence handed to his sister’s killer.

“You don’t know when it’s going to end, that’s the trouble. Or whatever sort of sentence she [was] going to get. But as I said I’m very pleased with the sentence she got, you’ve got no idea,” he said.

St Andrews aged care facility chief executive Phillip Carter said the former nurse’s sentence acknowledged the injustice suffered by the families of her victims.

“Today’s sentence goes some way towards addressing the injustice and acknowledging the pain and suffering family and friends have endured,” he said.

“All of the staff at St Andrews, and the board, have been deeply affected by what has happened.”

Marie Darragh’s daughter Jan Parkinson said the experience had been “horrendous” and had affected her health.

“I’m numb at the moment, I don’t know what to think. I’m happy that I’ll never have to worry about her being out on the streets and doing this to anyone else again,” she said.

She urged the Government to put cameras in nursing homes to monitor elderly people without family to visit or take care of them.

“They [the Government] have to start putting cameras in and people to take care of the elderly people who don’t have families to take care of them,” she said.

“There’s people in those nursing homes that never get visits. Nobody knows what they’re going through.

“Please, I beg you, check your elderly people. If they say something to you, listen to them.”

Complaints made by three residents

The trial heard from the director of Care at St Andrews Village, Wendy Turner, who said she had been made aware of issues raised by three residents.

“I asked Ms Darragh if somebody had been rude to her and she said ‘yes, it was Megan’,” she said.

“She said ‘I needed some cream applied to my fanny … and I asked her to apply some cream to which Megan said cover yourself up you look disgusting, switched the light off and left’.

“She said she hadn’t seen her before or since.”

Ms Turner said another resident alleged she had been handled “roughly” by Haines, while Mrs Spencer reported she had refused to take her to the bathroom and told her to “piss in her pad” instead.

This post originally appeared on ABC News.