Credits: Social Media
Woman accused of adding Viagra to colleagues’ instant�coffee
Coffee is the worlds most popular beverage with around two billion cups of Joe consumed every single day. However, this week, a bizarre court case from the UK went viral after a 62-year-old woman was accused of adding Viagra to her colleagues instant coffee. She was later cleared and found not guilty after ‘spilling the beans’ to a UK jury.
Woman cleared of spiking coffee with Viagra
Karen Beale, a 62-year-old factory cleaner, was accused of lacing two jars of instant Nescaf� coffee with ground-up Viagra tablets in an attempt to poison her colleagues.
Not what you would expect to be in Nescaf�, lead prosecutor Matthew Hodgetts told the Canterbury Crown court this week.
Complaints started to be raised about the coffee Beale was making when the firms accountant Katrina Gravenor fell ill with a mysterious ailment that puzzled her doctors a hidden camera was then set up and pointed directly at the coffee jars.
This week, the jury was reportedly shown at least two video clips from a hidden camera which showed Beales suspicious activity surrounding the jaw of Nescafe instant coffee.
The first showed the cleaner allegedly handling a coffee jar in latex gloves, shaking the containers, pouring out some of its contents, and conspicuously placing them back on the shelf.
In the second clip, Beale was seen handling the jars with her sleeves pulled up over her hand, which the prosecution alleged was done in an attempt to ensure no fingerprints were left at the crime scene.
After being alerted, police found two of the coffee jars (one in Gravenors office, the other in company secretary Jean Smiths office) contained trace amounts of sildenafil, an erectile dysfunction medication also known as Viagra, as well as a type of medication used to treat high cholesterol.
She was intending that there would be some effect on those two women by putting it in their coffee. Thats why the prosecution say she was attempting to poison.
The prosecution also noted that whilst neither of the substances were likely to cause serious harm to either Gravenor or Smith, Beale had been hoping and intending it would have some effect and, at the very least, some annoyance .
Beale denied the charges and reportedly told the police that she was the victim of malicious allegations, adding that the footage shows her only inspecting the jars. On Thursday, January 25th, she was cleared of any charges and found not guilty by a jury of seven men.
