Pair not guilty of student’s diet-aid manslaughter
ANUMBER of charges have been dropped against a man and woman over the death of a student who bought a toxic slimming aid online.
Eloise Parry, who was a student at Glyndwr University in Wrexham, died after taking diet pills containing the poisonous Dinitrophenol (DNP).
Albert Huynh, Bernard Rebelo and Mary Roberts were each charged with two counts of manslaughter over the death of the 21-year-old, from Shrewsbury.
They were also charged with supplying an unsafe food supplement containing DNP between February 24, 2014, and February 24, 2016.
Those charges against Huynh and Roberts were dropped because of insufficient evidence they were involved in selling DNP.
A jury at Inner London Crown Court formally returned not-guilty verdicts on Tuesday.
Huynh, 33, from Northolt, north-west London, was discharged in the case.
Roberts, 32, from Gosport in Hampshire, faces a remaining count of money laundering after allegedly transferring £20,000 for and on behalf of Rebelo.
Rebelo, 30, also from Gosport, still faces two counts of manslaughter and one of supplying an unsafe food supplement. He denies all the charges.
Yesterday online steroid dealer Rebelo said the toxic pills sold to Ms Parry were not intended for human consumption.
He said he started selling steroids online in 2012 and later switched to DNP because “steroids are a class-three item but it wasn’t illegal to sell DNP”.
He admitted during his evidence yesterday that he sold DNP to Miss Parry.
He told the jury that he included a warning on his website that the substance was not for human consumption.
“It had numerous other uses – photography, fertiliser, pesticide, paint dye,” he added.
He said he did not intend or expect anyone who bought DNP from him to eat it.
At the start of the trial prosecutor Richard Barraclough QC told jurors taking the chemical has been described as “playing Russian roulette” and a case of: “You might survive, you might not.”
Ms Parry, who had an eating disorder and had been diagnosed as bulimic, died “a most distressing death” on April 12, 2015, jurors heard.
Describing DNP, and its effects, Mr Barraclough in his case opening said it was a “highly toxic substance when ingested, inhaled or absorbed through the skin”.
He said it caused weight loss by burning fat and carbohydrates.
“The result is that that person’s temperature and metabolic rate all dangerously increase,” Mr Barraclough said.
Jurors heard that among other things DNP could cause multiple organ failure, hyperthermia, nausea, coma, muscle rigidity, cardiac arrest and death.
“This is what happened to Eloise Parry”, said Mr Barraclough.
The case continues.