Father’s 1,500-mile journey to confront Ukrainian drug dealer who killed his daughter
THE father of a young woman killed by banned diet pills hunted down the dealer in the Ukraine this week – and secured an extraordinary confession. Doug Shipsey confronted gym fanatic Andrei Shepelev in his grimy Soviet- era flat that doubles as a Breaking Bad-style drug factory.
The company director has fought for two years to seek justice for his tragic daughter Beth, who died in February 2017 after taking pills sent by Shepelev.
After travelling 1,500 miles from Worcester to Ukraine, he held up a picture of Beth as he told the dealer: ‘I want you to look into my daughter’s eyes and apologise for selling her the pills that killed her.’
Shepelev, 31, admitted: ‘I’m sorry, but I just wanted to make some money.
‘I’m sorry I’m not crying, but I can say I feel sorry. If I knew your daughter would [die] I would never sell her anything.’ He said he processed the deadly chemical that killed Beth, put it in capsules and sent it to England in 2017 concealed inside a DVD case.
Prompted by Mr Shipsey, the dealer also made a personal apology to Beth’s mother Carole. But he added: ‘It was just a business idea to buy Ukranian cheap stuff and sell it to the UK, just for money.’ With breathtaking cynicism, he added: ‘After deaths, sales go up four or five times, but I didn’t sell to the UK after this moment.’
Beth Shipsey, an animal welfare activist, suffered a cardiac arrest in February 2017 after taking pills containing dinitrophenol – socalled DNP – which is marketed online as a ‘fat burner’.
The 21-year-old paid £156.55 for 24 pills, which Shepelev produced at his grubby one-bedroom flat in Volochysk, Khmelnytskyi, western Ukraine, where the kitchen is littered with bodybuilding protein shakes. Following the confrontation, Mr Shipsey, 53 – who had been accompanied by the Daily Mail – said: ‘I didn’t know how [Shepelev] would react – I though he might pull out an AK-47 and shoot me.
‘When I stood in the door of Shepelev’s flat, with its walls stained yellow from his drug production, I had to restrain myself from wanting to wring his neck.
‘ But that’s not me – I just wanted him to admit what he’s done, and apologise for it to Beth’s family, while looking into her eyes and mine. I want to send a message to other dealers in death – we, the relatives of their victims, will come for them.’
An inquest early last year found that Beth, who had mental health problems, had intended to take her own life. However, her family believe sub- standard care at Worcestershire Royal hospital contributed to her death. But there is no dispute that Beth should never have had access to the so- called diet pills – which have been ruled ‘extremely dangerous’ by experts.
DNP was designed to be a pesticide and a chemical dye and is not illegal to sell. Yet ruthless online dealers market it as a superstrength diet remedy, which works by accelerating the body’s metabolism. Tiny doses can overwhelm the nervous system and lead to a terrifyingly fast heartbeat that can result in coma and death.
A Mail investigation last year identified Shepelev, who bought the DNP from online wholesale suppliers, as the dealer who sold the drugs to Beth.
Ukrainian police raided his flat in November, but set him free claiming there was no evidence of drugs. Yet this week Shepelev admitted the capsules were ‘full’ of the deadly chemical. Details of the confession have now been handed to Ukranian drug squad officers. Mr Shipsey also believes Shepelev could face charges of preparing an explosive, because DNP – which is legal to own but illegal to sell – becomes highly volatile when dried.
Mr Shipsey said: ‘I still believe that while Shepelev thinks he is in the clear, he may yet be brought to justice. The police said there was no evidence he had DNP at his flat, but he admitted to me that he had.’ The Food Standards Agency said it is powerless to act outside the UK but is being urged to help control access to DNP.
For Mr Shipsey the trip – and Shepelev’s admission of guilt – represented a bittersweet but significant victory. Now he is determined to secure a conviction.
‘I wanted to wring his neck’