Australian woman charged with poisoning colleague’s curry with snail pellets

Read the original at The Independent ↗
Cite

Sarkar, A. R. (2026, October 16). Australian woman charged with poisoning colleague’s curry with snail pellets. The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/perth-woman-poisoning-colleague-curry-snail-b3067850.html

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

The Independent · collected 2026-10-16 · by Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

Quick Summary

A 43-year-old woman in Perth, Australia, has been charged with attempting to poison a colleague's curry with snail pellets containing metaldehyde. The incident occurred when the victim returned to eat leftover curry and noticed green granules, experiencing numbness afterward. After a months-long investigation, police found that the suspect had allegedly tampered with the curry before it was consumed by colleagues at their workplace in February. This case is part of recent trends involving alleged poisonings in workplaces around the world.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-16, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

A 43-year-old woman in Perth, Western Australia, has been charged with endangering the life, health, or safety of another person after allegedly lacing her colleague's curry with snail poison. The incident occurred in February when a 58-year-old woman brought curry to share at work; staff ate it during morning tea without issues. At lunchtime, the victim noticed green granules and experienced numbness on tasting it. She kept the food as evidence and reported it to police who identified the substance as snail pellets containing metaldehyde, a poisonous pesticide. The accused is scheduled to appear in court on November 5; both women were reportedly in a personal relationship.

Written for “Woman Charged For Poisoning Colleague's Curry” on 2026-10-16, grounded in this article and the 4 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Woman Charged For Poisoning Colleague's Curry
Crime & Law · 5 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 18% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
BBC News · 0.92 cosine similarity
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 29% hedged 2 of 7 📰 publisher trust 72
“Both articles describe an Australian woman charged with lacing her colleague's curry with snail poison in Western Australia in February, resulting in a numb tongue and bright green granules observed.”
The Sydney Morning Herald
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 no claims extracted 📰 publisher trust 61
“Both articles describe an Australian woman charged for poisoning her colleague's curry with snail bait/pellets, occurring on the same date and involving the same incident.”
Daily Mail · 0.93 cosine similarity
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 17% hedged 3 of 18 📰 publisher trust 64
“Both articles describe an identical incident where a woman was charged with poisoning her girlfriend's curry with snail pellets at their workplace in Perth, Western Australia.”
The Guardian · 0.90 cosine similarity
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 15% hedged 2 of 13 📰 publisher trust 67
“Both articles describe the same woman, age and location in Perth, poisoning a colleague's curry with snail pellets during a workplace morning tea break.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
22
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
18%
4 of 22 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
59/100
The Independent's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
5
Crime & Law
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-16 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

The Independent · 2426 article(s) · 5 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 5 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
27 article(s) here · 0 carrying a prediction
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Also by Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 27 articles by Alisha Rahaman Sarkar →

Topics

Australian Independent Oldbury Perth Western Australia

Subjects

Yuan PERSON · 3× Australian NORP · 1× Chinese NORP · 1× Col Blanch PERSON · 1× Independent NORP · 1× Oldbury GPE · 1× Perth GPE · 1× Western Australia GPE · 1× Wyoming GPE · 1× the Armadale Magistrates Court ORG · 1×

Narrative

As her illness caused her to experience hair loss and even led to her missing work because she was vomiting, she noticed that her feelings of sickness were often preceded by her drinking from her bottle.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-16
2026-10-16 · The Independent
Australian woman charged with poisoning colleague’s curry with snail pellets · assertive framing

Claims (22 extracted, 4 hedged)

An Australian woman has been charged with poisoning a colleague's curry lunch with snail pellets. asserted
woman → charge → pellets
A 58-year-old woman from Perth brought a container of curry to her workplace in Oldbury to share with her colleagues in February, the Western Australia police said. asserted
police → bring → February
She and her co-workers ate the curry during a morning tea break without any issue. asserted
She → eat → issue
But when she went back to eat the leftover curry, she noticed green granules in the food. asserted
she → go → food
Shortly after tasting the food, she experienced numbness in her tongue. asserted
she → taste → tongue
She kept the leftover as evidence and later handed it over to the police. asserted
She → keep → police
After a months-long investigation, the police charged a 43-year-old woman, who worked in the same office and was reportedly in a “personal relationship” with the victim, with endangering the life, health or safety of another person. uncertain
who → charge → person
The police alleged the suspect accessed a chemical storage shed before returning to the staff room to add snail pellets to the curry. asserted
suspect → allege → curry
The police said the snail pellets contained metaldehyde, which poisoned the curry. " asserted
which → say → curry
We're just very thankful that the person who tasted the curry was aware of something that wasn't quite right," commissioner Col Blanch told reporters. asserted
Blanch → taste → reporters
The suspect is due to appear before the Armadale Magistrates Court on 5 November. asserted
suspect → appear → November
This is the latest in a spate of recent incidents of people allegedly poisoning their colleagues. uncertain
people → poison → colleagues
A Chinese microbiology graduate student in Wyoming, US, was arrested earlier this month for allegedly poisoning a colleague’s tea, then trying to flee America after police questioned her. uncertain
police → arrest → her
Aili Wang, 32, was detained at the Los Angeles airport on 6 October. asserted
Wang → detain → October
The student allegedly purchased a chemical called acrylamide on eBay for the poisoning. uncertain
student → purchase → poisoning
It was discovered after the alleged victim’s wife and multiple others tested water from the coffee maker he had used to brew tea. asserted
he → discover → tea
In California, a man caught on camera poisoning his colleague’s water was seeking to get the charges against him dismissed. asserted
charges → catch → him
David Xu was arrested in 2019 after placing toxic heavy metal cadmium in his coworker Rong Yuan’s water bottle at their workplace. asserted
Xu → arrest → workplace
Footage recorded by a secret camera set up by Ms Yuan on her desk and shared with ABC 7 showed the perpetrator opening a small, white container and tipping its contents into his coworker’s bottle. asserted
perpetrator → record → bottle
In the clip, recorded at Berkeley Engineering and Research, Mr Xu quickly flees before briefly returning to adjust the position of Ms Yuan’s water container. asserted
Xu → record → container
Ms Yuan said that she had become increasingly ill over two years, beginning in 2017. asserted
she → say → 2017
As her illness caused her to experience hair loss and even led to her missing work because she was vomiting, she noticed that her feelings of sickness were often preceded by her drinking from her bottle. asserted
her → cause → bottle
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