Guernsey care worker stole fentanyl patch from bed-ridden woman

Monday 25 October 2021

A 33-year-old Guernsey care worker has been handed a suspended prison sentence for taking a fentanyl patch off a bed-ridden woman and stealing another resident's medication for six months.

Danielle Sarahs, a former employee at the St. John's Residential Home, was given a suspended 18-month sentence and ordered to carry out 120 hours of community service.

A fentanyl patch was applied regularly to a bed-ridden resident, who was approaching the end of her life. That included 9 January 2021, when it was applied at 10:15 in the morning.

The patch was routinely checked by a nurse at 16:00, when it was still present beneath the resident's surgical bandages.

However, when the resident was checked again at 22:15, the dressing appeared to have been disturbed and the patch was missing. 

On other occasions between July 2020 and January 2021, six tramadol tablets and five gabapentin tablets were taken from another resident, one or two at a time. 

After the resident reported it, there was increased monitoring of medication sets. The resident, anxious that their medication was being taken, had her suspicions of theft confirmed after she put a piece of paper over her medication box while she left her room for dinner.

When she got back, she found the box had been disturbed.

Pictured: The Royal Court decided that sending Sarahs straight to prison would be "disproportionate" because of her personal mitigation. 

The home’s Matron, Dr Sue Fleming, conducted her own investigation and suspected that Sarahs was the culprit.

On 16 January, she hatched a plan along with the Estates Manager to hide in the victim's bathroom while they were out in an effort to catch the thief in the act. The plan was agreed with the resident. 

With the bathroom door slightly ajar, they saw Sarahs enter, kneel down by the bed and go through the resident’s bedside drawers. 

Dr Fleming and her colleague caught her red-handed, with a gabapentin box in one hand and a blister pack in the other. 

Sarahs dropped the contents back in the drawer and initially denied stealing, before breaking down and admitting her guilt. The police were called and she was arrested. 

Crown Prosecutor Advocate Jenny McVeigh explained during Sarahs' sentencing hearing in Guernsey's Royal Court that empty blister packs of medication and part of a fentanyl patch were found at Sarahs' home during a subsequent search.

Sarahs initially said she had found the fentanyl patch, before later admitting she had taken it directly off the resident’s body.

Defence Advocate Liam Roffey alluded to his client’s traumatic experiences early in life and the significant struggles she had consequently faced with her mental health. 

Sarahs had no previous convictions and personal references handed to the Judge expressed “shock” at what she had done. 

She too had struggled to come to terms with her actions and initially lied about finding the patch “because she was so ashamed of what she had done.”

“Her addiction to opiates was untreated and quite frankly out of control,” Advocate Roffey lamented. “The opportunity her employment provided was ultimately too great.” 

It was Dr Fleming who summed up that fall from grace in her personal reference. Dr Fleming said she had valued and respected Sarahs during her 15 years of employment. 

“She had always cared for the residents to a high standard... especially the little things that made a difference.”

Advocate Roffey, observing his client’s distress in the dock, added: “My client is genuinely devastated that she has let down those she cared for so badly.”

Returning following their deliberation, Royal Court Judge Catherine Fooks revealed immediately to the defendant that she would not be going straight to prison. 

Delivering the Jurats’ verdict, Judge Fooks said that Sarahs’ offending represented a “serious breach of trust”, adding: "You thought you would get away with it and you thought only of yourself.”

Judge Fooks considered the defendant’s actions since being apprehended: “Once caught, you have engaged very well with support for your addiction.”

She described the crimes as “shocking, disgraceful and chilling”, having targeted a bed-ridden and vulnerable resident once and another resident over many months.

However, the Royal Court decided “on balance” that Sarahs deserved another chance. 

Her guilty plea, clean criminal record until now, efforts to tackle her addiction to painkillers and the impact on her family – which Judge Fooks said “would have been disproportionate” to the offending – weighted the Jurats’ thinking away from immediate imprisonment.

Instead, Sarahs was sentenced to an 18-month custodial sentence, suspended, and ordered to carry out 120 hours of community service.