Woman who tried to murder toddler by giving her antidepressants jailed for six years

A woman who tried to murder a toddler by repeatedly dosing the child with adult medication has been jailed for at least six years and given an order for lifelong restriction.

Laura Docherty gave the little girl antidepressants and pain-killing drugs, resulting in her needing to be resuscitated and put on a ventilator because of the abuse.

Docherty, 35, formerly of Glenrothes, in Fife, denied attempting to murder the infant during an earlier trial but was unanimously convicted of the crime by a jury at the High Court in Edinburgh.

During sentencing at the High Court in Edinburgh on Monday, a judge imposed an Order for Lifelong Restriction on Docherty and ordered that she must serve a minimum term of six years’ imprisonment before she can seek to apply for parole.

Judge Michael O’Grady KC told her: “When you are released, if indeed you are ever released, it will be a matter for the Scottish parole board.”

He said that in her case, she would most likely spend “a significant period of years in custody”.

‘Breathtakingly wicked’

Docherty repeatedly administered Amitriptyline, Propranolol and Dihydrocodeine to the victim to the danger of her life.

As a result, the girl suffered seizures and episodes of reduced consciousness and required resuscitation, admission to hospital and being placed on a ventilator.

She was also subjected to unnecessary medical investigations and procedures following Docherty’s actions.

The trial judge, Michael O’Grady KC, described Docherty’s criminal conduct as “utterly reckless and breathtakingly wicked”.

Mr O’Grady previously said the survival of the child owed “absolutely nothing to the accused”, but was down to the considerable skill of paramedics and doctors.

He said that on one occasion, Docherty came within a hair’s breadth of killing the child, and a paramedic had to use all his skills to bring her back from the point of death while Docherty responded by filming the episode.

Mr O’Grady said: “You deny your guilt. You accept no responsibility. You show no remorse or insight. You blame others for the situation you find yourself in.”

The judge said Docherty was manipulative and cunning and added: “Time and again she deceived doctors and nurses and social workers and showed considerable guilt.”

During an earlier hearing, the judge pointed out that she continued to deny the offence and has shown no insight and no remorse. He said: “She considers she is the victim.”

He told Docherty: “Whatever your own trials and tribulations, whatever the turmoil in your own life, what you did to that child was utterly wicked.”

“It is impossible to forget the sight of a young child – who should have been in the flower of her childhood – prone in the back of an ambulance, desperately struggling to breathe, desperately struggling to hang on by a thread to life,” he said.

Mr O’Grady said Docherty was willing to throw away that life “for nothing more than the drama of the moment and the attention you seem to seek at every turn”.

The court heard that a report prepared on Docherty concluded that she has an emotionally unstable personality disorder.