Nurse Megan Haines found guilty of murdering two women in NSW nursing home

A nurse has been found guilty of murdering two elderly women with insulin injections after finding out that complaints had been made about her. 

Following two false starts and a 2½-week trial in the NSW Supreme Court, a jury on Thursday afternoon found Megan Jean Haines guilty of killing the women while she was a nurse at St Andrews Village on the North Coast in 2014. 

Aged-care nurse Megan Jean Haines was convicted of the murder of two residents at a Ballina aged-cared facility. Photo: Supplied

The jury had retired only in the morning to begin its deliberations. 

The South African-born woman moved to NSW in 2014 after a tumultuous nursing career in Victoria in which she was embroiled in three misconduct investigations. 

Her nurse's registration was stripped in 2008 but she was allowed to work again after AHPRA approved her re-registration in 2012. 

Two years later, on her sixth night shift at St Andrews Village in Ballina, Haines murdered Marie Darragh, 82, and Isabella Spencer, 77, in their beds.

On May 9, 2014, Haines learnt that two complaints had been made about her and a third one from another resident was pending.

By the next morning two of those women were dead. 

Victim: Marie Darragh, 82. Photo: Supplied

The Crown had alleged Haines realised that another complaint investigation could be "catostrophic" for her career, given her past misconduct findings. 

More to come