4 hours ago
3
The police prosecutor said Headland was in a position of authority when he stole 17 vials of fentanyl over a three-month period in differing size vials, and self-administered it.
Headland punctured the vials, took the substance, and replaced it with saline – a mix of salt and water.
Lee Headland and his lawyer outside court.Credit: Hannah Murphy
“He then returned the [tampered] fentanyl back into circulation,” the prosecutor said.
She said the vials had subsequently been placed into the stores of other paramedics who didn’t know the drugs had been tampered with, but did not say if any patients had knowingly been administered the saline rather than the drug.
Headland was arrested and charged with the theft of $1312 worth of fentanyl at his Crooking Brook home in March, and on a search of his property, police also found an unregistered air rifle in his wardrobe.
This masthead understands there were initially concerns at least one patient had been injected with saline rather than painkillers, but a St John WA spokeswoman said there was “no evidence” patients had been impacted by the drug tampering.
“A clinical audit was conducted by St John WA at Australind Station within the identified period of concern,” she said.
“The audit did not find evidence that impacted vials were administered, and was therefore able to conclude there was no evidence of clinical harm to any patient.”
Headland’s lawyer Paul Chapman submitted a psychological report to the court, and said Headland took the drugs after he was “triggered” while on the job.
Loading
“He was called out to a nine-month-old baby that had drowned in a bathtub,” he said.
The baby was revived, but later died in hospital.
“I can’t imagine the type of stress he was under and the types of things he had seen,” he said.
Chapman went on to claim Headland had been dealing with a sexual harassment case at the service that was his responsibility to manage, and he had felt unsupported by his immediate managers.
“At this time [St John] also doubled their output, with no extra resources,” he said.
“Someone on the frontline ambulance service just doesn’t have those supports.
“He’s been to his superiors, they hadn’t provided him any support, this was his last call.”
Chapman said Headland was marked to be in the 99th percentile of anxiety and depression at the time of his offending, and was unlikely to re-offend.
“It was a cry for help,” he said.
Butcher questioned whether any patients had been adversely affected by the tampered drugs, and both the police prosecutor and Chapman said there was no evidence that had occurred.
The police prosecutor said it could have been potentially serious if a patient in pain had been injected with the saline rather than painkillers, and said if Headland had been dealing with anxiety and depression, he had appropriate supports available to him.
The matter was heard in Bunbury’s courthouse.Credit: Hannah Murphy
“There are procedures in place … and as the manager he would have been aware of those,” she said.
Other paramedics, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the case exposed a need for greater restrictions on schedule A drug stores and the need to properly resource country stations for oversight purposes.
St John was contacted for comment.
