Saudi murder nurse spared jail after fraud

A FORMER nurse who was jailed for helping to murder a colleague in Saudi Arabia and who stole the dead woman's credit cards has been sentenced to two years' probabtion after admitting fraud charges.

Lucille McLauchlan, who appeared in court under her married name of Ferrie, was sentenced to eight years and 500 lashes by a Saudi court in 1997 for the murder of Australian nurse Yvonne Gilford and the theft of her credit cards.

Ferrie was placed on probation for two years yesterday after admitting three charges of credit card fraud at Dundee Sheriff Court.

Solicitor John Boyle said his client's time in a Saudi jail had left an "indelible mark" on her.

He added: "These offences are baffling. Ms Ferrie is a devoted mother of two, she is in a stable address, she has no drug or alcohol dependencies, no debts, and no financial difficulties. There was no need to commit these offences. She is at a loss herself to explain why she did this.

"Whatever happened in Saudi Arabia has left an indelible mark on her. She won't talk in detail about what happened, but she is honest enough to say that the experience changed her.

"She says this is the first time she has felt emotions since that time. Ms Ferrie has actually welcomed these proceedings as an opportunity to change back to what she was before and to feel emotions for the first time in a long time."

Earlier this year, Ferrie, 45, admitted that on 30 April 2010 she used two credit cards, one Visa and one Mastercard, in someone else's name to commit internet frauds from her home by ordering goods worth 1,000 from online retailers Argos and Littlewoods.

She also used the cards to buy two televisions, totalling 462.98, a mobile phone worth 217.93 and a netbook computer at 324.95.

A not guilty plea to a charge that Ferrie, of Broughty Ferry, stole a purse from Dundee College was accepted by the Crown.

Mr Boyle said that the reports before Sheriff Tom Hughes were "positive", but outlined "significant issues she needs to address".

He added: "Given that she has spent time in custody in Saudi Arabia, she is clearly not someone vulnerable to a custodial setting.

"However, the report says that the best way to deal with these issues is through a community-based disposal."

Sheriff Hughes agreed and told an ashen-faced Ferrie in the dock: "I heard the narration of the Crown case at an earlier hearing. I have taken the view that I should follow the recommendations in the report and place you on probation for a period of two years." Ferrie was arrested in December 1996 for the murder of Ms Gilford, who was beaten and stabbed, after being found with the dead woman's credit cards.

She was subsequently convicted after her friend and fellow nurse Deborah Parry, from Alton, Hants, confessed.

Parry was sentenced to death by beheading. But, after 17 months in jail and intense lobbying by the British government, the pair were granted clemency by King Fahd and released in 1998.

Both have protested their innocence, claiming they confessed to the crimes because they were threatened with sexual abuse.

Ferrie returned to marry Grant Ferrie from whom she is now separated, and to face the original Scottish charges from which she had fled - that she had stolen patients' credit cards while working as a nurse in Dundee.

She was found guilty of charges of reset, theft and fraud at Dundee Sheriff Court and sentenced to 240 hours of community service. She had used a bank card, stolen from a patient at Kings Cross Hospital in Dundee, to obtain 300.

Following her conviction, she was struck off the nursing register by her professional regulatory body, the UK Central Council for Nursing.