A Belfast woman who lied to a family that included a seriously ill man about planning to donate her kidney to help him, in an act of “abject wickedness”, has been jailed for five months.
Nicola Hutton deceived a husband and wife who believed she was “the answer to our prayers”.
District Judge Francis Rafferty described the 54-year-old as an “emotional parasite” who fed off the couple’s despair and “luxuriated” in offering them false hope.
“You presented yourself as an angel or a saviour and took the kudos and credit for that when you knew that you were as malignant a process in their life as any illness or sickness,” he said.
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Hutton, of Strandburn Drive, Belfast, was convicted of a false communication offence following a contested hearing at Belfast Magistrates’ Court.
She approached the family in August 2024 when they issued a public appeal on behalf of the sick man, who had been suffering from kidney disease for 10 years.
With a kidney function of about 15 per cent, his condition required a donor and daily dialysis.
Using the name Nicola Carlisle, the defendant responded on social media by offering to be a live donor and claiming to be on the transplant register.
Over a six-month period she sent the family text messages claiming to have attended medical appointments and to have received positive news that transplant surgery would happen by June 2025.
She met with the couple in January of this year, accepting a Marc Jacobs gift set from them as a gesture of thanks.
A month later, the man’s transplant co-ordination team informed him he would have to undergo daily dialysis because no match had been found.
When he queried the news, still believing Hutton had been accepted as a successful candidate, it was confirmed she had never been on the system.
The defendant maintained her deception after the family confronted her and blamed it on an error made by hospital staff.
At that point they blocked all communications with Hutton and contacted police.
Although a legitimate donor was subsequently found, prosecutors said six months were wasted because of the family’s trust in the defendant.
During the contest, Hutton made unspecified claims about hospital appointments without any evidence to show they took place.
Her barrister, Peter Sands, accepted that a family desperately seeking help in a dire situation would have suffered distress through what happened.
In a victim impact statement, the man’s wife told how they had been overwhelmed at the apparent kindness of a stranger who could be “the answer to our prayers”.
She said it was impossible not to have felt relieved and hopeful when the defendant informed them she had applied to be a donor.
At one point, Hutton rang them to say she was standing in the rain after attending hospital tests, but had done it all to help the man.
Passing sentence, the judge told her: “I do not recall encountering a series of acts or behaviour of such abject wickedness in many a long year.
“Your repugnant, repellent behaviour was exacerbated by the fact that you maintained your catalogue of lies and evasions, you required a member of the transplant team to take themselves away from the work they do, to sit in court and listen to you lie about them, their procedures and their professionalism.”
Judge Rafferty went on: “At a time when the family were facing the gravest threat of all, the loss of a husband and a father, you decided to inject yourself into their world and spread poison, wickedness and false hope. A search process that exasperated the family, that caused them waking torment.”
He also set out how the couple had called off their search for a donor, overjoyed when the fraudster informed them she was a match and offering “not just respite but rescue”.
“I can only imagine the abject horror they felt whenever they realised that you had been lying to them all along.”
