By Connor Lynch

Copyright belfastlive

An East Belfast woman has been labelled a “wicked, callous and evil liar” after she gave a Newtownabbey family false hope that she was going to donate a kidney to a sickly man. Nicola Hutton, 54, of Strandburn Drive, appeared at Belfast Magistrates Court on Thursday, September 18, after being charged with a false communication offence after she had pretended to go through the organ donation process in order to donate a kidney to Billy Cullen. The court heard that Hutton had approached the Cullen family via social media , using an account that had her maiden name Carlisle, saying that she wanted to donate a kidney to Billy and had started the process to do so. She then spent months communicating via text message with the family and had one face to face meeting where the Cullen family had bought her lunch and a present. During this time she had maintained that she was going through the organ donation process and told the Cullen’s to not look for a new donor. A member of the transplant coordination team was called to the stand to give evidence in the trial, where she said that Hutton had never engaged with their services and there was no record of her requesting a transplant pack, or having any appointments or tests carried out with the team. She said that Hutton was not known to the team at all and any information showing that Hutton was would not have passed her by. The 54-year-old was then called to the stand where she was questioned on her view of what had happened, with Hutton saying that she had heard about the difficulties Billy was facing on social media. She had said she had already registered as a stem cell donor in 2022 in order to help a poor child, although nobody from the service had ever contacted her. Hutton told the court that she could have remained anonymous during the donor process but decided she did not want to as she had requested that her kidney go to Billy specifically and she did not want to end up in a “transplant pool”. Hutton said that after telling the Cullen’s that she would be a donor for Billy, they had posted about it on social media, with Hutton later asking the family to remove the post due to messages she received. The court heard that Billy’s wife Joanne had been respectful of this. Hutton told the court that she had attended around 10 appointments regarding the transplant but was unable to say when exactly this was at first only saying that they took place “over a period of time”. After being further questioned about the timings of these appointments Hutton said that one took place near Christmas and eventually said sometime in December. She was also questioned about her police interview where she told officers “can someone not change their mind” with regards to the transplant treatment, but later denied saying this on the stand and said she was tired during the police interview due to caring for her father the night before. After giving her evidence on the stand, Judge Rafferty said that Hutton’s responses insulted the intelligence of the court as she had “shrugged her shoulders” while making unspecified claims about hospital appointments without any evidence to show they took place. He noted how Hutton had told the Cullen family that she had hoped the transplant surgery would take place before June 2025, and that they no longer had to look for a donor anymore. This “wasted six months” of Billy’s life at a critical time for his health, with him requiring dialysis due to the deterioration in his kidneys during that time. He said that she had destroyed the family’s hope of finding a kidney donor and that she was a “fantasist” who told brazen lies to the court and the Cullen family. Judge Rafferty said Hutton was a “wicked, callous and evil liar” and that he believed she had not only passed the custody threshold, but “obliterated it” and that he couldn’t “think of anything more cruel or indeed wicked” as her actions. She is due to appear in court again on October 30 for sentencing, with her being warned that she must engage with the probation service and not pretend that she has not received any correspondence with it. For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our daily newsletter here.