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.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to