Image: Yle

A 36 year-old female nurse was found guilty in Central Ostrobothnia District Court on charges including aggravated abuse, larceny and narcotics offences for actions that she carried out at a dying child's family home in Kokkola two years ago.

The nurse was handed down a one-year, eight-month suspended jail sentence and was ordered to carry out 80 hours of community service by the court on Friday.

The court heard evidence that while the woman was employed as the ill toddler's nurse, she stole the child's prescribed doses of morphine and replaced them with water. Morphine is a potentially very addictive opioid used to treat moderate to severe pain.

The nurse had admitted to having switched out the powerful painkiller for water, and admitted to having given the child allergy pills instead of prescribed sleeping medication.

The court found that by not giving the child needed drugs the nurse directly caused the child more suffering. The nurse's actions were carried out at the child's family home.

Due to the child's worsening symptoms, it was the parents who first began to suspect that their child was not receiving morphine.