Doctor caught trying to smuggle drugs spared jail

● Sheriff orders medic to carry out 210 hours of unpaid work

A doctor who was accused of killing a 27-year-old friend by giving her a cocktail of prescription drugs and was later caught trying to smuggle powerful painkillers into Scotland has been spared jail.

Mother-of-two Katy Mcallister, who was acquitted of the culpable homicide of her friend, appeared for sentence at Dundee Sheriff Court yesterday after pleading guilty in September to importing or attempting to import oxycodone and morphine, both Class A drugs.

The court heard that Mcallister had been duped by her online supplier in India and been sent tablets that she could have bought over-thecounter at any chemist or even in a corner shop.

Instead of powerful drugs like morphine, she received hundreds of hay-fever pills, paracetamol tablets and ibuprofen.

Mcallister, 33, had been on track for a top career despite her difficult childhood.

She admitted importing the tranquilliser diazepam and temazepam, a sleeping pill, both Class C drugs. The court heard that she had undergone an operation since the offence – for a condition which was not disclosed in open court – which meant she now no longer needed pain-blocking medication.

Her solicitor, George Donnelly, said: “She is now entirely free of any pain relief medication and appears before this court today in a much more settled fashion.”

Sheriff Alastair Carmichael ordered Mcallister to carry out 210 hours of unpaid work and placed her on social work supervision for two years, as a direct alternative to jail.

He said the serious nature of the offence, and her previous High Court conviction for supplying drugs, meant he had considered a custodial sentence.

He also ordered her to return to court in May for a review of the community payback order and warned her: “This is your last chance. If you don’t succeed on this order there’s a very good chance you’ll go to prison.”

Mcallister, who was employed as a speciality registrar, still faces professional proceedings before the Medical Practitioner’s Tribunal Service.

The offences were committed between May and August 2017