Nurse who had sex with mental health patient spared jail

A nurse at a mental health unit who had a sexual relationship with a patient has avoided jail.

Jill McLaren had secret trysts with the man she knew from the secure clinic in Glasgow where she worked.

This included the 37-year-old mother of two taking him to her home under the guise of an escorted Christmas shopping trip.

McLaren pleaded guilty at Glasgow ­Sheriff Court to engaging in sexual activity with or directed towards the victim while being employed in a hospital in which a mentally disordered person was being treated.

The crime spanned between July 2018 and September 2019. 

Prosecutors accepted not guilty pleas to similar allegations that she was involved with two other patients.

McLaren, of Greenock, was yesterday ­sentenced to 180 hours of unpaid work, put under supervision for 18 months and tagged for five months, keeping her indoors between 9pm and 6am from Sundays to Fridays.

She was also put on the sex offenders’ register for 18 months.

Sheriff Gerard Considine said: ‘There is no doubt this was a gross breach of trust. The law protects people suffering from mental disorders. 

Such conduct was wrong.

‘You used a false name to contact him, which is an aggravating feature, as was the location and the time involved.’

The court earlier heard how the nurse and the man ­chatted about their shared love for ­fitness and then started flirting with each other. Fiscal Lauren Donnelly said: ‘They began kissing in the cupboard.’

The pair agreed that if McLaren wished to speak to him outside the clinic she should use a false name.

The man was woken up by the nurse one evening during a night-shift as she shone a torch into his face.

She then ­carried out a sex act in his bedroom.

The court heard the pair went on an outing so that he could apparently buy Christmas gifts. 

They instead ended up at her house where sexual contact occurred.

McLaren left her permanent post at the unit in August 2019. But she still took shifts and, during one, an argument occurred after McLaren ended the relationship.

A staff nurse at the unit later received a phone call asking for the man and recognised McLaren’s voice.

The man’s mental health deteriorated after he was made aware that the staff knew about the relationship.

He later told his lawyer about what was going on and McLaren was arrested.