The girlfriend of an Australian man who was sickened by rat poison has been ordered not to leave the country, Taipei prosecutors said yesterday, after reports that she told prosecutors she had prepared the poison for herself.
Australian Alex Shorey, 24, left Taiwan on Wednesday on a medical evacuation flight bound for Queensland, where he is continuing to receive treatment after ingesting the rat poison superwarfarin.
Authorities searched the residence of Shorey’s Taiwanese girlfriend on Wednesday as the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office opened an investigation into the case.
Photo: CNA
Also conducting investigations are the Taipei Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division and Xinyi Precinct, which interviewed people of interest in the case and reviewed Shorey’s medical records.
The girlfriend was on Thursday questioned and ordered not to leave the country, although she has not been arrested or charged, the office said yesterday.
The office declined to release the content of her statement, citing an active investigation.
However, Chinese-language media reported that she said she prepared the poison with the intent of taking her own life after quarreling with Shorey, who then accidentally ingested it instead.
Prosecutors said they are considering taking a statement remotely from Shorey after he recovers.
Both of Shorey’s parents were interviewed by authorities prior to their departure from Taiwan, they added.
The office also ruled out the possibility of food poisoning or illegal drugs as the cause of the poisoning.
The cause would be determined after further investigation, it added.
A probe into whether Shorey ingested the poison through contaminated drugs was launched in response to media reports on the topic and is being led by the office’s chief drug prosecutor, the office said in a statement on Thursday.
The investigation comes after the Chinese-language United Daily News published a letter on Monday by doctor Tao Hung-yang (陶宏洋) who said that Shorey’s condition might have been caused by contaminated synthetic marijuana products.
Shorey, a native of Toowoomba in southern Queensland, was a student in a Chinese-language program at New Taipei City’s Tamkang University from September last year to February.
In the middle of last month he was admitted to Taipei Medical University Hospital with symptoms including nausea, vomiting, nosebleeds, bloody urine and coagulation disorders.
Doctors determined that he had likely been poisoned by superwarfarin, an anticoagulant rodenticide, and after he experienced an allergic reaction to his initial treatment, doctors adjusted his medication and his condition began to stabilize.
This story has been amended since it was first published.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS