Oz court charges strawberry saboteur

POLICE investigating a major Australian strawberry needle contamination scare that sparked nationwide panic on Monday identified a former farm supervisor as their main suspect.

Pins and needles were found stuck into the fruit in September, leading supermarkets to pull boxes from shelves across Australia and New Zealand and forcing farmers to dump crops.

The sabotage and a rash of suspected hoaxes and copycat attacks also prompted the national government to raise criminal penalties for fruit tampering.

My Ut Trinh, 50, who worked at one of the strawberry farms where the tampered produce was grown, was arrested and charged with seven counts of c o nt a minati ng g o o ds by Queensland state police on Sunday.

She faced court on Monday a nd ba i l was den ied a f ter prosecutors sa id she cou ld s u f f er r et r i but ion for her a l le ge d ac t ion s , s a id T he Australian.

The court was told she was mot i v a t e d b y s pi t e a nd revenge when she a l leged ly inserted t he needles into t he ber r ies i n ea rly September, the newspaper added.

Earlier, police spoke of t he challenges that the investigator s faced a s t hey t r ied to determine t he source of t he contamination.

“This ha s probably been one of t he most tr y ing investigations t hat I’ve been part of,” Detective Superintendent Jon Wacker told reporters in Brisbane.

Wacker said Trinh, an Australian citizen, “was a supervisor at a farm”, with Queensland’s Courier Mail identifying her employer as the Berrylicious and Berry Obsession farm – one of the growers at the heart of the scare.

Wacker said investigators had “strong evidence” including DNA.

He said police collected 230 reports nationw ide of strawberr y contamination af fecting 68 bra nds, most wit hin his state, wit h t he major it y involv ing sewing needles.

Some cases were also found to be “a hoax or a false complaint”, Wacker added. Police had earlier questioned at least two minors over suspected hoaxes.

The Queensland Strawberr y Growers Association welcomed the arrest, but noted t he h ig h nu mber of u n resolved cases, adding t hat t he seven counts in Trinh’s charge sheet suggested that most of t he 230 repor ts were eit her copycat act ions or hoa xes.