Catherine Hudson

Introduction

Catherine Hudson is a British nurse who worked on the stroke unit of Blackpool Victoria Hospital in Lancashire. In December 2023 she was jailed for seven years and two months for illegally sedating two patients on the unit and conspiring with a junior colleague to sedate a third, conduct the sentencing judge described as exploiting vulnerable patients to secure an “easy life”. In January 2025, a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) misconduct panel struck her off the nursing register, formally ending her ability to practise. The case began years earlier, when a student nurse on placement reported comments she had made about giving an unprescribed sleeping pill to an elderly patient. Her own WhatsApp messages about her victims, read in court, became the detail the case was remembered by.

Background Information

Hudson worked as a nurse on the stroke unit at Blackpool Victoria Hospital, caring for patients who were often elderly and at their most vulnerable. Police were alerted by hospital chiefs in November 2018 after a student nurse on a work placement said Hudson suggested administering unprescribed zopiclone, a sleeping pill, to an elderly patient, Preston Crown Court heard during her sentencing. That report triggered a criminal investigation into the goings-on on the unit, which ultimately encompassed not only the sedation of patients but also the theft of drugs from the hospital and attempts to cover up what had happened. The case went to a jury trial at Preston Crown Court, alongside further charges to which Hudson entered guilty pleas.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated vs. alleged. Hudson’s convictions on three counts of ill-treating patients and her conviction for conspiring with a junior colleague to inappropriately sedate another patient were returned by a jury at Preston Crown Court, and she admitted further offences of conspiring to steal drugs and medication from the hospital and perverting the course of justice. All of these are matters of court record. The striking-off described in this section is a separate regulatory decision of an NMC misconduct panel, made on the basis of those convictions; it is not itself a criminal sentence.

The evidence that defined the trial was Hudson’s own writing. She wrote about one of her victims in a WhatsApp message: “I sedated one of them to within an inch of her life lol. Bet she’s flat for a week haha xxx.” The message, sent about a patient on the stroke unit, was presented as evidence of the illegal sedation she was carrying out, and of the casualness with which she treated it. Hudson was found guilty by a jury of three counts of ill-treating patients, and she was also convicted of conspiring with her junior colleague to inappropriately sedate another patient. She admitted a number of offences of conspiring to steal drugs and medication from the hospital, and perverting the course of justice.

Sentencing her in December 2023 to seven years and two months in prison, the judge said of one of her victims: “Her illness was to be mocked and her vulnerability was to be exploited to give them an easy life.” The phrase captured what prosecutors and the court found to have happened on the unit: patients sedated not for any therapeutic reason but to make the staff caring for them less busy.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The criminal convictions brought the case wide coverage, and the regulatory outcome renewed it. The nursing misconduct panel found Hudson’s “ill-treatment of vulnerable stroke patients over a prolonged period of time particularly deplorable”, a report published in January 2025 said. In light of the seriousness of the convictions and there being no evidence of insight, remorse or strengthening of practice, the panel determined there was a high risk of Hudson’s behaviour being repeated. Its report stated: “Mrs Hudson’s actions were significant departures from the standards expected of a registered nurse and in the panel’s judgement they were fundamentally incompatible with her remaining on the register.” The panel added that it was of the view that a member of the public would find it morally reprehensible if a nurse were allowed to practise having been convicted of ill-treatment of patients, theft of drugs and perverting the course of justice. It concluded that a striking-off order was required.

Current Status

As of the NMC report published in January 2025, Hudson is struck off the nursing register, and she is a serving prisoner under the sentence of seven years and two months imposed in December 2023. Because a striking-off order cannot take effect until the end of the 28-day appeal period, the panel imposed an interim suspension order for a period of 18 months to cover any potential period of appeal. The reporting contains no indication that Hudson has appealed the striking-off decision. Her position is therefore regulated on two fronts at once: the criminal sentence imposed by Preston Crown Court and the removal of her professional registration by the NMC.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The striking-off order permanently ends Hudson’s career as a registered nurse in the United Kingdom: her name is removed from the NMC register, and the panel’s judgement that her actions were fundamentally incompatible with remaining on it means there is no ordinary route back to practice. The panel’s reasoning rested on the convictions themselves — ill-treatment of patients, theft of drugs and perverting the course of justice — and on its finding that she showed no insight, remorse or strengthening of practice, leaving what it judged a high risk of repetition. Combined with the seven-year-and-two-month prison sentence imposed in December 2023, the case removed her from both the profession and public life, and the panel’s description of her ill-treatment of vulnerable stroke patients over a prolonged period as particularly deplorable stands as the regulatory system’s final word on it.