Billy Cullen was left severely ill due to the actions of ‘callous and evil’ fake kidney donor Nicola Hutton
The victim of “wicked, callous and evil” fake kidney donor Nicola Hutton hopes to move on with his life as she was jailed for five months saying “she has already taken so much from me”.
Billy Cullen and his wife Joanne thought their prayers had been answered when Nicola Hutton contacted them following a Belfast Live appeal for help to find a kidney donor and never imagined that the East Belfast woman would string them along for six months with lie after lie.
During that time Billy’s health deteriorated to the point that his kidney was functioning at less than 10% and he was needing to start urgent dialysis treatment.
READ MORE: ‘Wicked’ fake kidney donor fraudster Nicola Hutton jailed immediately as appeal rejectedREAD MORE: ‘Emotional parasite’ jailed for lying about donating a kidney to help seriously ill man
It was only after they were contacted by the organ transplant teamand told a donor had still not been found for Billy that the couple were able to uncover the truth, with Joanne “laying a trap” for Hutton in order to catch her out on her lies by providing her with a false name of a doctor who was looking after her husband.
However, despite being arrested and charged to court, Hutton continued to brazenly lie and even took to the witness stand in court to tell staff from the organ transplant team that they were wrong when they said she had never been in contact with them.
Hutton was convicted in July, 2025, of a false communication offence and sentenced to five months in prison with Judge Francis Rafferty saying: “I do not recall encountering a series of acts or behaviour of such abject wickedness in many a long year,” regarding her offending.
Although Hutton never spent a day in prison as she immediately appealed her conviction and sentence.
On Friday, January 30, Hutton appeared in court again for her appeal hearing, where she withdrew her conviction appeal and only appealed her sentence with her solicitor asking for it to be suspended.
But in the end her appeal was rejected with the judge saying that her actions were “so disruptive” and induced such serious trauma and danger that they warranted a custodial sentence.
Speaking to Belfast Live as Hutton made her way to prison, Billy and Joanne Cullen said they now wanted to put the past year and a half behind them and move on with their lives as they welcomed the prison sentence.
Billy said: “I feel relieved that it’s over and I can move on now. I can put her in the back of my mind and I don’t have to worry about her anymore, which is the best thing because I think she’s already taken so much time out of my life already.
“She came up with every excuse in the book to try and get off with it and I am just glad that the judge saw through everything.”
Speaking about the appeal hearing today Billy said: “I felt like I was watching a football match, a high intensity football match because it was full of swings and I thought she might get away with it after he solicitor explained her side.
“I am just glad that she didn’t and I hope that it will stop anyone else from trying to do something like this. When you are on the kidney donor it is life changing and then if you think you’ve got a live donor and then all of a sudden you don’t, it does mess with your mind.”
Billy’s wife Joanne said: “I will just go with what Judge Rafferty said she was an evil, callous, wicked liar and I can’t add to that.”
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