Three nurses who were jailed for ill treating stroke patients at a Lancashire hospital before joking about sedating them in WhatsApp group messages, will not have their sentences increased.

Band 5 staff nurse Catherine Hudson, 54, was jailed for seven years and two months at Preston Crown Court in December for three offences of ill treatment and one of conspiracy to illtreat in relation to vulnerable patients at Blackpool Victoria Hospital.

She was also sentenced for conspiring to steal five different medications from the hospital and perverting the course of justice by attempting to dispose of the medication.

Assistant practitioner, Charlotte Wilmot, 48, was also jailed, for three years, at the same court for illtreating a patient and conspiring to illtreat another with her colleague, Hudson. She also conspired with Hudson to steal three different medications.

Band 7 staff nurse, Marek Grabianowski, 46, was jailed for 14 months for conspiracy to steal prescription drugs and perverting the course of justice.

Following their convictions and sentences, a member of the public referred their jail terms to the Attorney General’s Office under the Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme, after they felt their sentences did not reflect their crimes.

The Attorney General’s Office considered Hudson, Wilmot and Grabianowski’s case, but decided that there were no grounds to refer the case to the Court of Appeal for being unduly lenient.

The sentences of Hudson, Wilmot and Grabianowski will therefore remain the same.

If their cases had been referred, judges at the top court in the land would have heard their cases and then made a judgment; either agreeing their sentences were unduly lenient and extending them, disagreeing and leaving their sentences the same, or they may even have refused to hear their case at all.

A police investigation began in 2018 when a student nurse raised concerns around the treatment of patients on the stroke ward at Blackpool Victoria.

Hudson, of Coriander Close, Blackpool, had suggested to the student that they should give a patient zopiclone, a sedative, after being told the patient had been awake overnight.

She stated that if the patient came to harm as a result, she would not be caught out as nobody would investigate the cause of death.

Zopiclone is a class C controlled drug, and its use must be closely monitored. It can place patients with underlying conditions at greater risk.

When police officers looked at the phone messages and social media accounts of those involved, they discovered Hudson would mock patients in her care and brag to her colleagues that she had sedated them to “within an inch of their lives”.

The messages showed Wilmot, of Bowland Crescent, Blackpool, encouraging Hudson to sedate an 80-year-old woman.

Hudson, had similar conversations with other colleagues, bragging to one of them that she had sedated a patient and saying they needed “putting to sleep” and to be “sedated to hell”, “making for a nice day”.

The patients were not sedated for any medical reason, and it is believed their motivation was either for their own amusement or to make their shift easier.

Hudson and Wilmot also conspired to steal amoxicillin, metronidazole and trimethoprim, all antibiotic medications.

Hudson’s then partner, Marek Grabianowski, who worked elsewhere, conspired with Hudson to steal omeprazole, for his stomach cramps and zopiclone, a sedative medication, for Grabianowski’s father.

Police later uncovered evidence of a conversation between Hudson and Grabianowski discussing the disposal of the drugs that had been stolen. They were heard flushing medication down the toilet and discussing destroying the batch numbers.

Two further healthcare professionals, who previously pleaded guilty to several offences, were sentenced in October 2022.