Saudi murder nurse Lucille McLauchlan admits to shoplifting

A SCOTTISH nurse who made international headlines when she was convicted of being an accomplice to the murder of an Australian colleague is facing a return to jail after admitting a shoplifting charge.

Dressed in a cream coat, Lucille McLauchlan spoke only to confirm her name and guilty plea when she appeared in the dock at Dundee Sheriff Court today.

She had originally denied stealing a tub of face cream from a Boots store in Broughty Ferry on the outskirts of the city last year. However, her solicitor, John Boyle, said: “She now wishes to plead guilty to the charge.”

Sheriff George Way did not ask for a narration of the facts of the case.

Instead, he adjourned the diet until 1 May, for the preparation of background reports which will determine what sentence the mother-of-two receives.

It is the second time in a year she has been convicted of theft charges. Last April, she was placed on probation for two years for using stolen credit cards to buy £1,000 worth of goods online.

Lawyers acting for the mother-of-two successfully argued that she should be spared jail by telling Dundee Sheriff Court that the traumatic 17 months she spent in an Arab prison had left her psychologically scarred.

The 46-year-old, who is separted from her husband Grant Ferrie, whom she married while in prison, was sentenced to eight years in prison and 500 lashes in 1996 in connection with the killing of Yvonne Gilford, 55, and the theft of her credit cards.

McLauchlan’s English colleague Deborah Parry was sentenced to beheading after Miss Gilford was said to have been stabbed, beaten and suffocated.

The Scot, now of Broughty Ferry, was accused of being an accomplice to the crime.

She had used forged references to secure the post in Saudi Arabia after going on the run from a card fraud charge.

Accused of withdrawing £300 from an elderly patient’s account, she was sacked from her post at King’s Cross Hospital, Dundee.

She returned home an emotional reunion with her family following a pardon by King Fahd in 1998. This followed over a year of negotiations on her behalf by the UK government - but McLauchlan was struck off as a nurse after being convicted of the theft.

Both she and Parry claimed they had been subject to intimidation and sexual threats by police officers, leading to their confessions.