A woman who stabbed a care worker to death has been sentenced to an indefinite stay in a secure hospital.
Kellyanne McNaughton, 33, admitted killing 54-year-old Michele Rutherford at supported accommodation in Stirling, Scotland, on 7 March last year.
McNaughton stabbed Ms Rutherford repeatedly during the attack at Craighall Court and was arrested on the same day.
Ms Rutherford, a mother-of-two, was taken to Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital but could not be saved.
McNaughton was originally charged with murder but prosecutors accepted a plea to the lesser charge of culpable homicide.
She pleaded guilty in January but sentencing was delayed several times due to difficulty finding a secure hospital to accommodate her.
At the High Court in Glasgow on Monday, McNaughton was sentenced to a compulsion and restriction order at Priory Hospital Llanarth Court, Monmouthshire, Wales, which will be indefinite.
Killer ‘develops trances’
Dr Nicola Swinson, a consultant forensic psychiatrist who worked at Carstairs State Hospital for seven years, told the court that she first met McNaughton in the court cells after the killing happened.
She described McNaughton as having an “intellectual disability” and a diagnosis of emotionally unstable personality disorder with no previous history of violence.
Dr Swinson told the court: “Ms McNaughton develops what she calls trances, where she is unaware of what is happening during the course of this episode, and only becomes aware at the end of it.”
The court heard that McNaughton had been held in both HMP Polmont, where she did not leave her cell, and HMP Stirling.
Dr Swinson said the Priory Hospital Llanarth Court had assessed McNaughton, had seen a risk assessment and held discussions with staff, and that she believed McNaughton posed a risk to the public and a risk to herself.
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The Priory Hospital Llanarth Court is a medium-secure unit but Dr Swinson told the court the threshold was “much higher” in England and Wales, and she was aware of several convicted killers who had been accommodated in such units.
Dr Swinson said reports would be issued to the Ministry of Justice.
Advocate depute Graeme Jessop told the court Ms Rutherford’s family had written letters expressing concern.
Sentencing, Judge Armstrong said Ms Rutherford was a “loving mother” who had been attacked along with two other colleagues in the course of her work.
He said victim impact statements had been submitted from Ms Rutherford’s husband, daughters, and brother.
Addressing McNaughton, the judge said: “I hope it’s understood that the court can only act on expert advice.”
Source Agencies
